The thermocouple temperature instability

It has been demonstrated that the thermocouple with strong dependence of the thermoelectric parameters can be in the regime of temperature instability. The criterion of the instability origin has been calculated in the case when the Joule heat flow to the external junctions is absorbed by the Peltier effect and the temperature deviations of thermoelectric parameters can strongly break the heat balance. In this case only the Seebeck coefficient temperature dependence and the thermocouple figure of merit value determine the instability criterion. The thermocouple in the unstable regime can be used as a memory cell, a temperature amplifier and a temperature element very sensitive to the voltage