Improved SPICE modeling and analysis of a thermoelectric module

An improved SPICE model for a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is presented. Temperature variations of the intrinsic internal parameters are included in the proposed model. For accuracy in the proposed model, the internal parasitic components effects and the temperature dependence of the parameters that occur in any thermoelectric module (TEM) were taken into account. Experimental results were compiled in the form of a lookup table and then fed into the SPICE simulator using a piecewise linear (PWL) model in order to validate the model. Experimental results showed that a differential temperature of 13.43°C was achievable whereas the SPICE model indicated a temperature gap of 9.86°C with the higher error being associated with the hot side. Overall, both experimental and simulated results were in a good agreement.