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Micromachines
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Power MEMS
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Power MEMS

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2014) | Viewed by 56968

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Paul D. Ronney

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Room OHE 430J, Viterbi School of Engineering, 3650 McClintock Ave., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Interests: combustion; micro-scale power generation and propulsion; biophysics and biofilms; turbulence; internal combustion engines and control systems; low-gravity phenomena; radiative transfer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Common fuels contain at least 50 times more energy per unit mass than the best batteries, which is why every day, everywhere in the world we convert fuels into electrical or motive power for the vast majority of our energy needs. In contrast, not one of us has a fuel-powered laptop computer or cell phone despite the same advantage in energy density, primarily because we have not found practical ways to scale-down existing electrical or motive power generation systems. Moreover, there are many opportunities to “harvest” small amounts of otherwise wasted energy from large-scale systems to supply sensors, cameras, wireless data links, etc. With these motivations, researchers in the field of “Power MEMS” aim to develop small-scale power production devices, particularly in applications where batteries are typically used. In light of this, we announce a Special Issue on “Power MEMS” and invite original contributions. We seek not only to report on recent developments, but also to mold the future of the field. Example topics include, but are not limited to, microscale combustion and reacting flows, fuel cells, thermoelectric or thermophotovoltaic generators, piezoelectric or electromagnetic energy harvesters and airbreathing or rocket propulsion devices.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Paul Ronney
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Power MEMS
  • Micropower generation
  • Microcombustion
  • Microengines
  • Energy harvesting
  • Micro fuel cells

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1722 KiB  
Article
A Novel Transdermal Power Transfer Device for the Application of Implantable Microsystems
by Jing-Quan Liu, Yue-Feng Rui, Xiao-Yang Kang, Bin Yang, Xiang Chen and Chun-Sheng Yang
Micromachines 2015, 6(3), 396-408; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi6030396 - 23 Mar 2015
Viewed by 5992
Abstract
This paper presents a transdermal power transfer device for the application of implantable devices or systems. The device mainly consists of plug and socket. The power transfer process can be started after inserting the plug into the socket with an applied potential on [...] Read more.
This paper presents a transdermal power transfer device for the application of implantable devices or systems. The device mainly consists of plug and socket. The power transfer process can be started after inserting the plug into the socket with an applied potential on the plug. In order to improve the maneuverability and reliability of device during power transfer process, the metal net with mesh structure were added as a part of the socket to serve as intermediate electrical connection layer. The socket was encapsulated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with good biocompatibility and flexibility. Two stainless steel hollow needles placed in the same plane acted as the insertion part of the needle plug, and Parylene C thin films were deposited on needles to serve as insulation layers. At last, the properties of the transdermal power transfer device were tested. The average contact resistance between needle and metal mesh was 0.454 Ω after 50 random insertions, which showed good electrical connection. After NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) batteries were recharged for 10 min with current up to 200 mA, the caused resistive heat was less than 0.6 °C, which also demonstrated the low charging temperature and was suitable for charging implantable devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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15 pages, 2625 KiB  
Article
Design of a Weighted-Rotor Energy Harvester Based on Dynamic Analysis and Optimization of Circular Halbach Array Magnetic Disk
by Yu-Jen Wang, Yu-Ti Hao and Hao-Yu Lin
Micromachines 2015, 6(3), 375-389; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi6030375 - 23 Mar 2015
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 10789
Abstract
This paper proposes the design of a weighted-rotor energy harvester (WREH) in which the oscillation is caused by the periodic change of the tangential component of gravity, to harvest kinetic energy from a rotating wheel. When a WREH is designed with a suitable [...] Read more.
This paper proposes the design of a weighted-rotor energy harvester (WREH) in which the oscillation is caused by the periodic change of the tangential component of gravity, to harvest kinetic energy from a rotating wheel. When a WREH is designed with a suitable characteristic length, the rotor’s natural frequency changes according to the wheel rotation speed and the rotor oscillates at a wide angle and high angular velocity to generate a large amount of power. The magnetic disk is designed according to an optimized circular Halbach array. The optimized circular Halbach array magnetic disk provides the largest induced EMF for different sector-angle ratios for the same magnetic disk volume. This study examined the output voltage and power by considering the constant and accelerating plate-rotation speeds, respectively. This paper discusses the effects of the angular acceleration speed of a rotating wheel corresponding to the dynamic behaviors of a weighted rotor. The average output power is 399 to 535 microwatts at plate-rotation speeds from 300 to 500 rpm, enabling the WREH to be a suitable power source for a tire-pressure monitoring system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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16 pages, 3442 KiB  
Article
A Nonlinear Suspended Energy Harvester for a Tire Pressure Monitoring System
by Yu-Jen Wang, Chung-De Chen, Chung-Chih Lin and Jui-Hsin Yu
Micromachines 2015, 6(3), 312-327; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi6030312 - 27 Feb 2015
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 7330
Abstract
The objective of this study is to develop and analyze a nonlinear suspended energy harvester (NSEH) that can be mounted on a rotating wheel. The device comprises a permanent magnet as a mass in the kinetic system, two springs, and two coil sets. [...] Read more.
The objective of this study is to develop and analyze a nonlinear suspended energy harvester (NSEH) that can be mounted on a rotating wheel. The device comprises a permanent magnet as a mass in the kinetic system, two springs, and two coil sets. The mass vibrates along the transverse direction because of the variations in gravitational force. This research establishes nonlinear vibration equations based on the resonance frequency variation of the energy harvester; these equations are used for analyzing the power generation and vibration of the harvester. The kinetic behaviors can be determined according to the stiffness in the two directions of the two suspended springs. Electromagnetic damping is examined to estimate the power output and effect of the kinematic behaviors on NSEH. The power output of the NSEH with a 52 Ω resistor connected in series ranged from approximately 30 to 4200 μW at wheel speeds that ranged from nearly 200 to 900 rpm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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9 pages, 1896 KiB  
Article
Structure Design and Implementation of the Passive μ-DMFC
by Xiaowei Liu, Shuo Fang, Zezhong Ma and Yufeng Zhang
Micromachines 2015, 6(2), 230-238; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi6020230 - 4 Feb 2015
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6156
Abstract
A dual-chamber anode structure is proposed in order to solve two performance problems of the conventional passive micro direct methanol fuel cell (μ-DMFC). One of the problems is the unstable performance during long time discharge. The second problem is the short operating time. [...] Read more.
A dual-chamber anode structure is proposed in order to solve two performance problems of the conventional passive micro direct methanol fuel cell (μ-DMFC). One of the problems is the unstable performance during long time discharge. The second problem is the short operating time. In this structure, low concentration chamber is filled with methanol solution with appropriate concentration for the μ-DMFC. Pure methanol in high concentration chamber diffuses to the low concentration chamber to keep the concentration of methanol solution suitable for long-term discharge of μ-DMFC. In this study, a Nafion-Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite membrane is inserted between the two chambers to conduct pure methanol. The experimental results during long-term discharge show that the stable operating time of passive μ-DMFC increases by nearly 2.3 times compared to a conventional one with the same volume. These results could be applied to real products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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12 pages, 3063 KiB  
Article
Simple Stacking Methods for Silicon Micro Fuel Cells
by Gianmario Scotti, Petri Kanninen, Tanja Kallio and Sami Franssila
Micromachines 2014, 5(3), 558-569; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi5030558 - 21 Aug 2014
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 7711
Abstract
We present two simple methods, with parallel and serial gas flows, for the stacking of microfabricated silicon fuel cells with integrated current collectors, flow fields and gas diffusion layers. The gas diffusion layer is implemented using black silicon. In the two stacking methods [...] Read more.
We present two simple methods, with parallel and serial gas flows, for the stacking of microfabricated silicon fuel cells with integrated current collectors, flow fields and gas diffusion layers. The gas diffusion layer is implemented using black silicon. In the two stacking methods proposed in this work, the fluidic apertures and gas flow topology are rotationally symmetric and enable us to stack fuel cells without an increase in the number of electrical or fluidic ports or interconnects. Thanks to this simplicity and the structural compactness of each cell, the obtained stacks are very thin (~1.6 mm for a two-cell stack). We have fabricated two-cell stacks with two different gas flow topologies and obtained an open-circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.6 V and a power density of 63 mW·cm−2, proving the viability of the design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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Review

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33 pages, 1366 KiB  
Review
3-D Micro and Nano Technologies for Improvements in Electrochemical Power Devices
by Sunshine Holmberg, Alexandra Perebikovsky, Lawrence Kulinsky and Marc Madou
Micromachines 2014, 5(2), 171-203; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi5020171 - 8 Apr 2014
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 17519
Abstract
This review focuses on recent advances in micro- and nano-fabrication techniques and their applications to electrochemical power devices, specifically microfabricated Lithium-ion batteries, enzymatic and microbial fuel cells (biofuel cells), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Although the maturity of these three technologies ranges from [...] Read more.
This review focuses on recent advances in micro- and nano-fabrication techniques and their applications to electrochemical power devices, specifically microfabricated Lithium-ion batteries, enzymatic and microbial fuel cells (biofuel cells), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Although the maturity of these three technologies ranges from market ready (batteries) to fundamental research (biofuel cells) to applied research (DSSCs), advances in MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and NEMS (Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems) techniques, particularly modifications in surface area and surface chemistry, and novel genetic and molecular engineering techniques, significantly improve the electrochemical activity of these technologies across the board. For each of these three categories of power-MEMS devices the review covers: (1) The technical challenges facing the performance and fabrication of electrochemical power devices; (2) Current MEMS and NEMS techniques used to improve efficiency; and (3) Future outlook and suggested improvements of MEMS and NEMS for implementation in electrochemical power devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power MEMS)
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