Innovative design and optimized performance of thermoelectric transistor driven by the Seebeck effect

•Calculation results demonstrate the feasibility of thermoelectric transistor only driven by the Seebeck effect.•Formation of thermoelectric transistor circuit under the vertical temperature field can improve thermoelectric conversion performance.•The maximum output power of thermoelectric transistor is 17.8mW and the corresponding conversion efficiency is 8.69% at room temperature when the temperature difference is 50 K.