（1.State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China）（2.Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Foshan 528000, China）
Thermoelectric (TE) conversion devices, as a kind of functional devices that can realize direct inter-conversion between electricity and thermal energy, have important applications in the field of industrial waste-heat recovery, deep-space and deep-sea power supply, semiconducting cooling, and high-precision bi-directional temperature control. This paper comprehensively reviews the recent research progress of six kinds of TE conversion devices in topological structure design, interfacial connection control, integrated manufacturing, and performance optimization strategies. These devices include low-temperature, moderate-temperature, high-temperature single-stage TE conversion devices, and low-to-moderate temperature segmented TE conversion devices based on the bulk TE materials; thermo-electro-magnetic all-solid-state cooling devices based on the thermo-electro-magnetic materials; transverse TE conversion devices based on artificially tilted multilayer composites. In addition, the paper still briefly comments some of the challenges facing TE conversion devices, which refers to the heterogeneous interfacial instability for power generation applications and the issues in materials processing and device assembling for cooling applications.