Study of interface effects in thermoelectric microrefrigerators

Interface phenomena play a vital role in thermoelectric (TE) microrefrigerators. The present study employs a phenomenological model to examine the behavior of TE refrigerators as a function of thermal and electrical contact resistance, boundary Seebeck coefficient, and heat sink conductance. We modify the conventional definition of the figure of merit to capture the interface effects. A finite temperature drop across the interface between a metal electrode and a thermoelement is found to strongly influence the boundary Seebeck effect. Interface engineering can potentially improve the overall performance of TE microrefrigerators. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)08019-1].