Patent ID: 8404959

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a thermoelectric device, comprising: forming a plurality of first material portions at a plurality of thin-film thermoelectric element locations; forming a plurality of second material portions on the first material portions, respectively, wherein the first material portions are of a Seebeck effect material or an electrically conductive non-Seebeck effect material, the second material portions are of the Seebeck effect material if the first material portions are of the electrically conductive non-Seebeck effect material, and the second material portions are of the electrically conductive non-Seebeck effect material if the first material portions are of the Seebeck effect material; physically isolating the first material portions from each other; physically isolating the second material portions from each other; and electrically coupling a plurality of thin-film thermoelectric elements in parallel, wherein each respective thin-film thermoelectric element of the plurality of thin-film thermoelectric elements includes a respective one of the first material portions and a respective one of the second material portions, the electrically coupling including forming a first electrode electrically coupling the first material portions to each other and forming a second electrode, contacting second material portions and electrically coupling the second material portions to each other and wherein the second electrode is a continuous material over the plurality of second material portions, each of the thin-film thermoelectric elements being positioned between the first and second electrodes.