Scaling of dynamic thermoelectric harvesting devices in the 1-100 cm3 range

M. E. Kiziroglou; A. Elefsiniotis; N. Kokorakis; S. W. Wright; T. T. Toh; P. D. Mitcheson; U. Schmid; Th. Becker; E. M. Yeatman

doi:10.1117/12.2181209

21 May 2015 Scaling of dynamic thermoelectric harvesting devices in the 1-100 cm³ range

M. E. Kiziroglou, A. Elefsiniotis, N. Kokorakis, S. W. Wright, T. T. Toh, P. D. Mitcheson, U. Schmid, Th. Becker, E. M. Yeatman

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9517, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS VII; and Cyber Physical Systems; 95172F (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2181209
Event: SPIE Microtechnologies, 2015, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Aircraft sensors are typically cable powered, imposing a significant weight overhead. The exploitation of temperature variations during flight by a phase change material (PCM) based heat storage thermoelectric energy harvester, as an alternative power source in aeronautical applications, has recently been flight tested. In this work, a scaled-down and a scaled-up prototype are presented. Output energy of 4.1 J per gram of PCM from a typical flight cycle is demonstrated for the scaled-down device, and 3.2 J per gram of PCM for the scaled-up device. The observed performance improvement with scaling down is attributed to the reduction in temperature inhomogeneity inside the PCM. As an application demonstrator for dynamic thermoelectric harvesting devices, the output of a thermoelectric module is used to directly power a microcontroller for the generation of a pulse width modulation signal.

Citation Download Citation

M. E. Kiziroglou, A. Elefsiniotis, N. Kokorakis, S. W. Wright, T. T. Toh, P. D. Mitcheson, U. Schmid, Th. Becker, and E. M. Yeatman "Scaling of dynamic thermoelectric harvesting devices in the 1-100 cm³ range", Proc. SPIE 9517, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS VII; and Cyber Physical Systems, 95172F (21 May 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2181209

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