Statistical Analysis of a Round-Robin Measurement Survey of Two Candidate Materials for a Seebeck Coefficient Standard Reference Material

Z Q J Lu; N D Lowhorn; W Wong-Ng; W Zhang; E L Thomas; M Otani; M L Green; T N Tran; C Caylor; N R Dilley; A Downey; B Edwards; N Elsner; S Ghamaty; T Hogan; Q Jie; Q Li; J Martin; G Nolas; H Obara; J Sharp; R Venkatasubramanian; R Willigan; J Yang; T Tritt

doi:10.6028/jres.114.004

Statistical Analysis of a Round-Robin Measurement Survey of Two Candidate Materials for a Seebeck Coefficient Standard Reference Material

J Res Natl Inst Stand Technol. 2009 Feb 1;114(1):37-55. doi: 10.6028/jres.114.004. Print 2009 Jan-Feb.

Authors

Z Q J Lu¹, N D Lowhorn¹, W Wong-Ng¹, W Zhang¹, E L Thomas¹, M Otani¹, M L Green¹, T N Tran², C Caylor³, N R Dilley⁴, A Downey⁵, B Edwards⁶, N Elsner⁷, S Ghamaty⁷, T Hogan⁸, Q Jie⁹, Q Li⁹, J Martin¹⁰, G Nolas¹⁰, H Obara¹¹, J Sharp¹², R Venkatasubramanian³, R Willigan¹³, J Yang¹⁴, T Tritt⁶

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
² Naval Surface Warfare Center, West Bethesda, MD 20817.
³ RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.
⁴ Quantum Design, San Diego, CA 92121.
⁵ Armor Holdings, Sterling Heights, MI 48310 and Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
⁶ Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634.
⁷ Hi-Z Technology, Inc., San Diego, CA 92126.
⁸ Armor Holdings, Sterling Heights, MI 48310.
⁹ Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973.
¹⁰ University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620.
¹¹ Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ibaraki, Japan.
¹² Marlow Industries, Inc., Dallas, TX 75238.
¹³ United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT 06108.
¹⁴ General Motors R&D Center, Warren, MI 48090.

Abstract

In an effort to develop a Standard Reference Material (SRM™) for Seebeck coefficient, we have conducted a round-robin measurement survey of two candidate materials-undoped Bi2Te3 and Constantan (55 % Cu and 45 % Ni alloy). Measurements were performed in two rounds by twelve laboratories involved in active thermoelectric research using a number of different commercial and custom-built measurement systems and techniques. In this paper we report the detailed statistical analyses on the interlaboratory measurement results and the statistical methodology for analysis of irregularly sampled measurement curves in the interlaboratory study setting. Based on these results, we have selected Bi2Te3 as the prototype standard material. Once available, this SRM will be useful for future interlaboratory data comparison and instrument calibrations.

Keywords: Constantan; Ridge regression modeling; Seebeck coefficient; Standard Reference Material; bismuth telluride; consensus mean curve; functional data analysis; round-robin; thermoelectric.