Wearable electronics play a crucial role in advancing the rapid development of artificial intelligence, and as an attractive future vision, all-in-one wearable microsystems integrating powering, sensing, actuating and other functional components on a single chip have become an appealing tendency. Herein, we propose a wearable thermoelectric generator (ThEG) with a novel double-chain configuration to simultaneously realize sustainable energy harvesting and multi-functional sensing. In contrast to traditional single-chain ThEGs with the sole function of thermal energy harvesting, each individual chain of the developed double-chain thermoelectric generator (DC-ThEG) can be utilized to scavenge heat energy, and moreover, the combination of the two chains can be employed as functional sensing electrodes at the same time. The mature mass-fabrication technology of screen printing was successfully introduced to print n-type and p-type thermoelectric inks atop a polymeric substrate to form thermocouples to construct two independent chains, which makes this DC-ThEG flexible, high-performance and cost-efficient. The emerging material of silk fibroin was employed to cover the gap of the fabricated two chains to serve as a functional layer for sensing the existence of liquid water molecules in the air and the temperature. The powering and sensing functions of the developed DC-ThEG and their interactions were systematically studied via experimental measurements, which proved the DC-ThEG to be a robust multi-functional power source with a 151 mV open-circuit voltage. In addition, it was successfully demonstrated that this DC-ThEG can convert heat energy to achieve a 3.3 V output, matching common power demands of wearable electronics, and harvest biothermal energy to drive commercial electronics (i.e., a calculator). The integration approach of powering and multi-functional sensing based on this new double-chain configuration might open a new chapter in advanced thermoelectric generators, especially in the applications of all-in-one self-powered microsystems.

可穿戴电子产品在推动人工智能的快速发展中发挥着至关重要的作用，作为一种有吸引力的未来愿景，在单个芯片上集成供电、传感、驱动和其他功能组件的一体化可穿戴微系统已成为一种有吸引力的趋势。在此，我们提出了一种具有新颖双链配置的可穿戴热电发电机（ThEG），可同时实现可持续能量收集和多功能传感。与传统的仅具有热能收集功能的单链ThEG相比，所开发的双链热电发电机（DC-ThEG）的每个单独的链都可以用来收集热能，而且两条链的组合可以同时用作功能传感电极。成功引入丝网印刷的成熟大规模制造技术，在聚合物基板上印刷n型和p型热电墨水，形成热电偶，构建两条独立的链，这使得该DC-ThEG具有柔性、高性能和低成本的特点。高效的。采用新兴材料丝素蛋白覆盖所制造的两条链的间隙，作为检测空气中液态水分子的存在和温度的功能层。通过实验测量系统地研究了所开发的 DC-ThEG 的供电和传感功能及其相互作用，证明 DC-ThEG 是一种具有 151 mV 开路电压的强大多功能电源。此外，还成功证明了这种DC-ThEG可以将热能转化为3。3 V 输出，满足可穿戴电子产品的常见电源需求，并收集生物热能来驱动商业电子产品（即计算器）。基于这种新的双链配置的供电和多功能传感的集成方法可能会开启先进热电发电机的新篇章，特别是在一体化自供电微系统的应用中。