Acoustic Resonance Crack Identification in Thermoelectric Bi2Te3 Wafers

Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) is a thermoelectric material enabling efficient heat-to-electricity conversion and vice versa, finding applications in radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) for satellites (Launius, Powering space exploration: US space nuclear power, public perceptions, and outer planetary probes. In: 6th International energy conversion engineering conference (IECEC), p 5638, 2008) and solid-state cooling systems (Chu, Simons, Application of thermoelectrics to cooling electronics: review and prospects. In: Eighteenth international conference on thermoelectrics. proceedings, ICT’99 (Cat. No. 99TH8407). IEEE, Piscataway, p 270–279, 1999, August). However, the intrinsic brittleness of Bi2Te3 renders it susceptible to microcracking during manufacturing, leading to disruptions in its operational efficiency. Traditional methods for crack detection, reliant on manual optical inspection, prove to be time-consuming, subjective, and costly. In this study, we introduce an innovative automated crack detection technique, employing resonant acoustic excitation in conjunction with the Kirchhoff-Love plate theory and advanced image processing. While our method presents promise, our experimentation on 27 Bi2Te3 wafers reveals that it is a work in progress, with effectiveness not yet reaching its full potential. Although some agreement with the conventional baseline is observed, further refinement and enhancement are essential. This research holds the potential to advance the reliability and efficiency of thermoelectric materials, transcending Bi2Te3 wafers to offer broader applications in material science and engineering.