Patent ID: 8710348

Claim:
A device ( 31 , 31 a , 31 b ) characterized by a plurality of thermoelectric alloy elements of the p-type ( 32 , 34 , 36 ) and of the n-type ( 33 , 35 , 37 ) arranged serially, the n-type being interspersed with the p-type, each n-type element being separated from an adjacent p-type element by a thermally and electrically conductive interconnect ( 40 - 45 ) which electrically and thermally connect each element with any adjacent element to form a couple ( 46 ), further characterized in that each interconnect is joined to corresponding elements ( 32 - 37 , 33 a , 34 a ) by diffusion bonding, each interconnect occupying the entire space between adjacent elements, each n-type element being contiguous with a first surface of a related interconnect, and each p-type element being contiguous with a second surface of the related interconnect which is opposite to the first surface, alternating interconnects extending away from said elements in opposite directions, such that the odd numbered interconnects ( 41 , 43 , 45 ) extend in one direction and the even numbered interconnects ( 40 , 42 , 44 ) extend in a second direction opposite said one direction, either (a) only said n-type elements or only said p-type elements or (b) both said n-type elements and said p-type are thin-film super lattice elements comprising many hundreds of thin-film layers (A, B) in which there are layers of first thermoelectric alloys interspersed with layers of second thermoelectric alloys, the thermoelectric alloys forming the layers in p-type elements being different from the thermoelectric alloys forming layers in n-type elements.