Advanced Humidity Control for Small Volumes (HUMSV)

ORBITEC proposes the development of a new approach to bi-directional humidity control with the potential for providing a low cost highly reliable miniature humidity control system with no moving parts: Highly Reliable Humidity Control for Small Volumes. (HUMSV) The main innovation of the system is the proper configuration of a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) and a hydrophilic material, to allow capillary movement of moisture from one side of the TEC to the other. The process can be directed to bring moisture to a control volume or to dehumidify the control volume. This system has the potential to be orders of magnitude lighter and smaller than any existing humidity control system. The use of capillary forces in place of conventional fluid handling hardware (pumps, valves, reservoirs, and de-gassers) reduces cost, weight and volume. The proposed design removes those components that most often lead to breakdowns, thereby dramatically increasing reliability. The system has the potential to allow efficient, low mass, low cost environmental control on volumes as small as 1cm3 and as large as 1m3 while offering unparalleled simplicity and reliability.