Abstract

We show a novel method for the fabrication of a thermoelectric generator with the rapid, lithography-less technique of laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT), performed under ambient conditions. LIFT is a laser-assisted method for the transfer of materials such as metals, semiconductors and dielectrics, where a part of a thin film (donor) previously coated onto a transparent carrier substrate is transferred onto a nearby receiver initiated by the explosive expansion of a small part of the donor volume after the absorption of a laser pulse [1]. Electronic or photonic devices can be fabricated via LIFT on a range of receiver substrates, free from any constraints of substrate properties such as lattice constant or thermal expansion coefficient. This flexibility is desired for applications such as rapid prototyping and the fabrication of devices joining multiple non-standard materials on one substrate. The design of the proposed thermoelectric generator was selected to demonstrate the capabilities of LIFT by transferring layers from the chalcogenide compounds of Bi₂Te₃ and Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃ onto a glass receiver coated with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer.

© 2013 IEEE