Linearly enhanced response of thermopower in cascaded array of dual-stripe single-metal thermocouples

Based on the width dependence of thermopower, cascaded single-metal thermocouples were demonstrated in this report. The cascaded thermocouples were made from 100 nm thick Ni films with a 100 μm wide stripe and a 5 μm narrow stripe. The experiment results showed a linearly enhanced response of thermopower. The 64-cascaded thermocouple achieved an equivalent Seebeck coefficient of up to 55.69 μV/K, which is higher than that of a commercial type-K thermocouple (39.6 μV/K). The single-metal thermocouples were also fabricated on flexible substrates. With the simple fabrication process and remarkable temperature sensing ability, the cascaded single-metal thermocouples may find promising applications in temperature measurement of modern flexible electronic products and wearable devices.