Design of Substrate Stretchability Using Origami-Like Folding Deformation for Flexible Thermoelectric Generator.

A stretchable thermoelectric (TE) generator was developed by using rigid BiTe-based TE elements and a non-stretchable substrate with origami-like folding deformation. Our stretchable TE generator contains flat sections, on which the rigid TE elements are arranged, and folded sections, which produce and guarantee the stretchability of a device. First, a simple stretchable device with a single pair of p-type and n-type BiTe-based TE elements was designed and fabricated.