Integrated fuel cell micro power system by microfabrication technique

In this paper, we report a silicon/glass based micro fuel cell system fabricated by the micromachining technique. The anode and cathode catalyst layers are formed by directly sputtering platinum on the ICP-etched (Inductively Coupled Plasma) high-aspect-ratio columns on silicon substrate. Integrated gold-based micro current collectors are patterned on the silicon and glass surfaces. This prototypical micro fuel cell fed by H₂/O₂ demonstrates an output power of 7.10 mw/cm². An improved power of 12.3 mW/cm² is achieved by a novel etching process. Both prototypes are also tested with methanol/O₂, and the maximum output power is 0.10 mW/cm² and 0.15 mW/cm², respectively. Low internal resistance (around 0.7Ω·cm²) is achieved when using thin gold film (200 nm) as current collectors and the catalyst surface roughness does not affect the internal resistance.