Design, fabrication and testing of the P3 micro heat engine

Abstract

The development and testing of a micro heat engine is presented. For the first time the production of electrical power by a dynamic micro heat engine is demonstrated. The prototype micro heat engine is an external combustion engine that converts thermal power to mechanical power through the use of a novel thermodynamic cycle. Mechanical power is converted into electrical power through the use of a thin-film piezoelectric membrane generator. This design is well suited to photolithography-based batch fabrication methods, and is unlike any conventionally manufactured macro-scale engine.