High-frequency current distribution in thin-film comb thermal converter

An analytical model that allows one to determine the high-frequency current distribution in a thin-film comb thermal converter is presented. This model takes into account the influence of the shunting effect of a thermopile on the high-frequency current distribution in the thermal converter. The structure of the thermal converter is treated as a distributed-parameter structure. The distributed parameters of the structure are analyzed as applied to a thermal converter in which hot thermojunctions of a thermopile are situated above a heater. A system of equations that relates the high-frequency currents and the voltage in the thermal converter and takes into account the capacitive and inductive couplings between the heater and the thermopile and the periodicity of these couplings and the resistance per unit length of the thermopile is obtained. This system of equations is solved analytically by its transformation to one parameter task. Expressions for the high-frequency currents in the heater and the thermopile are obtained. The present model is used to determine the high-frequency current distribution in the realistic structure of the thin-film comb thermal converter.