Flexible Thermoelectric Generator Using Kirigami-Folding Structure

Abstract

In order to realize a flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) with high output performance and deformability, we have developed TEG with a kind of kirigami-folding structure which called “Tomoe-folding”. The proposed TEG with Tomoe-folding structure not only obtain a large temperature difference due to fold up from the heat source, but also have a flexibility to be attached to a curved surface because of kirigami structure. In this paper, power generation performance was compared with the 2 type TEGs. As a result, we have shown that the output power was dramatically improved by folding TEG into Tomoe-folding structure.