Design, fabrication, and testing of a prototype microthermophotovoltaic system

The design, fabrication and testing of a novel prototype microthermophotovoltaic (micro-TPV) system is first described in this paper. The system is made of a SiC emitter, a simple nine-layer dielectric filter and a GaSb Photovoltaic cell array. When the flow rate of hydrogen is 4.20 g/b and the H-2/air ratio is 0.9, the micro-TPV system is able to deliver an electrical power output of 1.02 W in a microcombustor of 0.113 cm(3) in volume. The open-circuit electrical voltage and short-circuit current are 2.28 V and 0.59 amp, respectively. This paper makes it possible for us to replace batteries with micro-TPV systems as the power of micro mechanical devices in near future.