Thermoelectric element, method of fabricating the same, and thermoelectric module employing the same

A method of fabricating a thermoelectric element, which comprises steps of:

• mixing and heat-melting a raw material of predetermined composition;
• forming the heat-melted material into a globular powder of thermoelectric material by dropping the heat melted thermoelectric material onto a rotating disc, and quenching the globular powder of thermoelectric material,
• filtering the globular powder of thermoelectric material into uniform grain diameters of at most 200 μm;
• sintering under pressure the globular powder of thermoelectric material having uniform grain diameters, and
• plastically deforming resulting sintered thermoelectric material by hot extrusion molding the sintered thermoelectric material in a first direction while compressing the sintered thermoelectric material in directions perpendicular to the first direction in an atmosphere selected from the group consisting of an inert gas and hydrogen, so as to bring crystal grains of the sintered thermoelectric material into a crystal orientation affording an excellent figure of merit.

A method of fabricating a thermoelectric element, which comprises steps of:

• mixing and heat-melting a raw material of predetermined composition;
• forming the heat-melted material into a globular powder of thermoelectric material by dropping the heat melted thermoelectric material onto a rotating disc, and quenching the globular powder of thermoelectric material,
• filtering the globular powder of thermoelectric material into uniform grain diameters of at most 200 μm;
• sintering under pressure the globular powder of thermoelectric material having uniform grain diameters, and
• plastically deforming resulting sintered thermoelectric material by hot forging in a hot condition by inhibiting expansion of the sintered thermoelectric material in first and second directions, the first and second directions being perpendicular to each other, while compressing the sintered thermoelectric material in a third direction that is perpendicular to the first and second directions, so as to bring crystal grains of the sintered thermoelectric material into a crystal orientation affording an excellent figure of merit.