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Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.
A thermocouple (the right most tube) inside the burner assembly of a water heater Thermocouple connection in gas appliances. The end ball (contact) on the left is insulated from the fitting by an insulating washer. The thermocouple line consists of copper wire, insulator and outer metal (usually copper) sheath which is also used as ground. [33]
The two top thermocouple junctions are at temperature T 1 while the two bottom thermocouple junctions are at temperature T 2. The output voltage from the thermopile, ΔV , is directly proportional to the temperature differential, ΔT or T 1 - T 2 , across the thermal resistance layer and number of thermocouple junction pairs.
The typical efficiency of TEGs is around 5–8%, although it can be higher. Older devices used bimetallic junctions and were bulky. More recent devices use highly doped semiconductors made from bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3), lead telluride (PbTe), [10] calcium manganese oxide (Ca 2 Mn 3 O 8), [11] [12] or combinations thereof, [13] depending on application temperature.
Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux at the junction of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current.
The multifoil cold stack assembly, composed of molybdenum, tungsten, stainless steel, copper, and alumina materials, provides the insulation between the electrical and thermal currents of the system. The SiGe n-leg doped with boron and SiGe p-leg doped with phosphorus act as the intermediary between the heat source and electrical assembly.
Thermoelectric sorting functions similarly to a thermocouple but involves an unknown material instead of an unknown temperature: a metallic probe of known composition is kept at a constant known temperature and held in contact with the unknown sample that is locally heated to the probe temperature, thereby providing an approximate measurement ...
An alternative to the Pirani gauge is the thermocouple gauge, which works on the same principle of detecting thermal conductivity of the gas by a change in temperature. In the thermocouple gauge, the temperature is sensed by a thermocouple rather than by the change in resistance of the heated wire.