Abstract
Thermoelectric energy harvesting represents a promising approach to partially or totally supply ultra-low power wearable devices, by using the human body heat as energy source. Few works were published on wearable and truly ready-to-use TEGs. The work presented in this contribute proposes development and assessment of operational properties of a system composed by a flexible heat sink free thermoelectric generator (TEG) and a DC–DC ASIC converter with 80 mV start-up input voltage. For a first functional investigation, a prototype of 45 thermocouples into a footprint area of about 2.2 × 10−3 m2 was fabricated and tested to evaluate its thermoelectric performance stand-alone and coupled with the DC–DC converter. A mean Seebeck coefficient of about 60 µV/K for pn couple was calculated from experimental data, and a power of about 27 nW was measured at 10 K on matched load of about 6.8 kΩ. A temperature difference of about 1.8 ℃ was achieved between the junctions in working conditions next to those typical of human body wearing in indoors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Francioso, L., De Pascali, C., Farella, I., Martucci, C., Cretì, P., Siciliano, P., Perrone, A: Flexible thermoelectric generator for ambient assisted living wearable biometric sensors. J. Power Sources 196(6), 3239–3243 (2011). doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.11.081
Francioso, L., De Pascali, C., Farella, I., Martucci, C., Cretì, P., Siciliano, P.: Polyimide/PDMS flexible thermoelectric generator for Ambient Assisted Living applications. Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 8066, 80662H (2011). doi:10.1117/12.887836
Francioso, L., De Pascali, C., Bartali, R., Morganti, E., Lorenzelli, L., Siciliano, P., Laidani, N.: PDMS/kapton interface plasma treatment effects on the polymeric package for a wearable thermoelectric generator. ACS App. Mater. Interfaces 5(14), 6586–6590 (2013). doi:10.1021/am401222p
Francioso, L., De Pascali, C., Siciliano, P., De Risi, A., D’Amico, S., Veri, C., Pasca, M: Thin film technology flexible thermoelectric generator and dedicated ASIC for energy harvesting applications. In: Proceedings of the 2013 5th IEEE International Workshop on Advances in Sensors and Interfaces, IWASI 2013, 6576100, pp. 104–107 (2013). doi:10.1109/IWASI.2013.6576100
Francioso, L., De Pascali, C., Siciliano P.: Experimental assessment of thermoelectric generator package properties: simulated results validation and real gradient capabilities. Energy. 86, 300–310 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.04.041
Carmo, J.P., Goncalves, L.M., Wolffenbuttel, R.F., Correia, J.H.: A planar thermoelectric power generator for integration in wearable microsystems. Sens. Actuators A 161(1–2), 199–204 (2010). doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.05.010
Kao, P.H., Shih, P.J., Dai, C.L., Liu, M.C.: Fabrication and characterization of CMOS-MEMS thermoelectric micro generators. Sensors 10, 1315–1325 (2010). doi:10.3390/s100201315
Yuan, Z., Ziouche, K., Bougrioua, Z., Lejeune, P., Lasri, T., Leclercq, D.: A planar micro thermoelectric generator with high thermal resistance. Sens. Actuators A 221, 67–76 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.sna.2014.10.026
Jin Bae, E., Hun Kang, Y., Jang, KS., Yun Cho, S.: Enhancement of thermoelectric properties of PEDOT: PSS and Tellurium-PEDOT: PSS hybrid composites by simple chemical treatment. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 18805 (2016). doi:10.1038/srep18805
Leonov, V., Gyselinckx, B., Van Hoof, C., Torfs, T., Yazicioglu, RF., Vullers, RJM., Fiorini, P., Wearable self-powered wireless devices with thermoelectric energy scavengers. In: Proceedings of Smart Systems Integration, Barcelona, Apr. 9–10, pp. 217–224 (2008). doi:10.1109/BSN.2009.10
Leonov, V., Torfs, T., Van Hoof, C., Vullers, R.J.M.: Smart wireless sensors integrated in clothing: an electrocardiography system in a shirt powered using human body heat. Sens. Transducers J. 107, 165–176 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Francioso, L. et al. (2018). Heat Sink Free Wearable Thermoelectric System with Low Startup Voltage, High Efficiency DC–DC Converter. In: Leone, A., Forleo, A., Francioso, L., Capone, S., Siciliano, P., Di Natale, C. (eds) Sensors and Microsystems. AISEM 2017. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66802-4_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66802-4_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66801-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66802-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)