Who makes Bismuth Telluride pellets

[kevlar49]

Who is a good source to buy bismuth telluride pellets for making thermoelectric devices?

 

[ornerynorsk]

Prototype or production quantity? I'm sure American Elements or Alfa Aesaer carries it at least in some form.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[btrueblood]

Hmm...a few minutes on google shows me the manufacturer landscape for those products has changed a bit in the 15 or so years since I was involved.

These guys appear to sell BiTe as wafers and chips:

http://www.wellentech.com/thermoelectricmaterials.html

A longer list of manufacturers here:

http://www.its.org/ztlinks/ztlinks/2-te-cooling/module-manufacturers

 

[kevlar49]

Thanks to all. Any good references showing how typically these pellets attached to the insulators? I've seen video of a kind of automatic pellet placement device but I am not sure if it is soldering them on.

 

[btrueblood]

Yes, soldered most typically, to the conductor traces placed on (typically) alumina insulator plates. Though one company that makes assemblies very well suited to thermal cycling (Nord, scbtnord.com), I know uses a conductive adhesive for the "hot" side - the adhesive allows a slight compliance between chip and insulator, which helps reduce the thermal expansion stresses that otherwise would fatigue the solder joint over enough cycles.