The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 02, 2020
Filed:
Jun. 13, 2014
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Erlanger, KY (US);
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota-shi Aichi-ken, JP;
Debasish Banerjee, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Michael Paul Rowe, Pinckney, MI (US);
Li Qin Zhou, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Minjuan Zhang, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Takuji Kita, Susono, JP;
TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC., Plano, TX (US);
TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota-shi, JP;
Abstract
A process for manufacturing a thermoelectric material having a plurality of grains and grain boundaries. The process includes determining a material composition to be investigated for the thermoelectric material and then determining a range of values of grain size and/or grain boundary barrier height obtainable for the material composition using current state of the art manufacturing techniques. Thereafter, a range of figure of merit values for the material composition is determined as a function of the range of values of grain size and/or grain boundary barrier height. And finally, a thermoelectric material having the determined material composition and an average grain size and grain boundary barrier height corresponding to the maximum range of figure of merit values is manufactured.