Stacked thin-film superlattice thermoelectric devices

A device (31, 31a, 31b) 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, 33a, 34a) 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.