Sensitivity analysis and optimization of thin-film thermoelectric coolers.

The cooling performance of a thermoelectric (TE) material is dependent on the figure-of-merit (ZT = S2σT/κ), where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ and κ are the electrical and thermal conductivities, respectively. The standard definition of ZT assigns equal importance to power factor (S2σ) and thermal conductivity. In this paper, we analyze the relative importance of each thermoelectric parameter on the cooling performance using the mathematical framework of sensitivity analysis. In addition, the impact of the electrical/thermal contact parasitics on bulk and superlattice Bi2Te3 is also investigated. In the presence of significant contact parasitics, we find that the carrier concentration that results in best cooling is lower than that of the highest ZT. We also establish the level of contact parasitics that are needed such that their impact on TE cooling is negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]