Miniaturized Thermal Energy Harvesting System

The objective of this Phase II program is to develop an innovative thermal energy harvesting system which is substantially superior to commercially available Seebeck devices. PowerMEMS believes that wireless technology is revolutionizing the industrial instrumentation world, but the idea of periodically replacing batteries in thousands of wireless device is unacceptable. Therefore, the key to developing a fully automated wireless based sensor network is providing remote power. To address this, PowerMEMS proposes a novel thermal energy harvesting system based on active materials. We propose using a mechanically coupled thin film ferromagnetic alloy with a thin film piezoelectric material along with new thermal interface materials. By combining these materials in a novel fashion, provides a unique device potentially producing larger power densities than currently available. BENEFIT: During the last decade there has been significant growth in low-power wireless sensor network systems (WSN) for applications such as aircraft health monitoring, petroleum screening, and bioterrorism evaluation.  All of these applications represent important issues to national defense and thus to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.  While WSN systems are becoming prevalent throughout our society, the major remaining obstacle is providing remote energy, i.e. energy harvesting.  While conventional wireless systems include cell phones and laptops, future wireless systems are orders of magnitude smaller and more ubiquitous than current systems, providing detailed and site specific information on complex systems (e.g. aircraft engines). However, the idea of periodically replacing batteries in thousands of wireless devices throughout a defense or industrial complex is unacceptable and in many applications (i.e. jet engine health monitoring) impossible. This proposal suggests a radial new approach to solve these problems with large applications in both commercial and defense sectors.