Microthermophotovoltaic power generator with high power density

A promising energy source for portable MEMS devices, microthermophotovoltaic (micro-TPV) power generator, is described in this paper. The system mainly consists of a micro SiC combustor, and a GaSb photovoltaic (PV) cell array and a simple nine-layer dielectric filter, with a volume of about 3.1 cm3. When the flow rate of H2 is 4.2 g/h, and H2/O2 ratio is 0.7, the system is able to deliver 3.06 W electrical power, the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current are 2.31 V and 1.74 A, respectively, the result is a power density of about 1.0 W/cm3 (1 MW/m3). The effect of all kinds of factors on the performance of the micro-TPV system is also discussed in this paper.