High-Performance Thin-Film Multijunction Thermal Converter Developed at AIST

For wide spread distribution of multijunction thermal converters (MJTCs), thin film MJTCs with a novel structure have been developed. In order to reduce the effect of thermal ripples to the output voltage for MJTCs, the authors introduced an AlN chip under a Cu electrode on which Bi/Sb thermocouples are integrated. The thermoelectric transfer difference of the new MJTCs was evaluated to be less than 0.2 muV/V and their ac-dc differences was measured to be less than 10 muV/V in the frequency range from 10 Hz up to 1 MHz. The maximum output EMF for developed MJTCs was 35 mV