Design and fabrication of multijunction thermal converters at NIST and Sandia National Laboratories

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) are collaborating on the design and fabrication of thin-film multijunction thermal converters (MJTCs). A brief description of thermal converters and their applications is presented, followed by descriptions of the motivation, fabrication processes, physical characteristics and the electrical properties of the thin-film MJTCs produced by the NIST/SNL project.