Additive Manufacturing of Bulk Thermoelectric Architectures: A Review

Abstract

Additive manufacturing offers several opportunities for thermoelectric energy harvesting systems. This new manufacturing approach enables customized leg geometries, minimized thermal boundary resistances, less retooling, reduced thermoelectric material waste, and strong potential to manipulate microstructure for higher values of figure of merit. Although additive manufacturing has been used to fabricate thin thermoelectric films, there has been comparatively limited demonstrations of additive manufacturing for bulk thermoelectric structures. This review provides insights about the current progress of bulk thermoelectric material and device additive manufacturing. Each additive manufacturing technique used to produce bulk thermoelectric structures is discussed in detail along with future directions and challenges.