Monolithic micro fuel cells as integrated power sources in MEMS

The increasing interest in fully integrated electronic systems for portable applications has originated new research developments in micropower sources. In this context, micro fuel cells arise as a promising solution for the power supply of portable microsystems [1,2]. The main issue in order to use such devices for this purpose is to be able to fabricate them by using a monolithic architecture compatible with the standard microfabrication processes. In order to do this for PEM type fuel cells, one of the first topics to cover is the fabrication of the membrane with microfabrication compatible processes. This paper explains the results achieved with a first hybrid demonstrator of a direct methanol micro fuel cell (muDMFC) and two different approaches for new monolithic micro fuel cells.