Talk:Micropower

Too big for MEMS
These gadgets seem to be too big for Microelectromechanical systems, which are nanoscale rather than say the size of a quarter as some of these units and too small for Gas turbine. They seem notable and verifiable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia, but where other than this standalone article should they be? If here, what name should the article have? Edison 18:24, 1 November 2006 (UTC)


 * When the inventors/developers write about their work in the various journals, what term(s) do they use? We should follow their lead. — Atlant 18:59, 1 November 2006 (UTC)


 * In the science reporting and journal articles cited, the following terms are used: microgenerator (sometimes for the turbine plus the generator, sometimes just for the part that produces electricity); microelectromechanical system (MEMS) (these are an instance of MEMS, but there are MEMS which are not turbine powered generators); microengine (used several times to refer to the exact topic of this article, which is a tiny gas turbine coupled to a tiny generator, fabricated on silicon chips, to power portable electronics in place of a battery). "Microengine" is also used to describe a particular computer program which has nothing to do with these gadgets. I could see having the article retitled "Microengine" with a disambiguating term following the word, like "Microengine (turbogenerator). There are also a couple of articles about "microengines" which are way smaller than these, like the size of a grain of sand, such as " Tiny transmission," Arthur Fisher. Popular Science. New York: Apr 1998.Vol.252, Iss. 4;  pg. 28. Also at  "Microtransmission powers microengine," by Gary Chamberlain. Design News. Boston: Feb 2, 1998.Vol.53, Iss. 3;  pg. 17 . These other much smaller devices are more nanoscale and not turbogenerators. Thoughts? Edison 15:35, 3 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The focus of the article is emerging technology to furnish the power presently provided by disposable or rechargeable batteries for portable electronic equipment, with fuel used to run a turbine or fuel cell. Just as a car powered by gas or diesel can go farther than one powered only by batteries, a methanol cartridge has the potential to run a computer for 5000 hours compared to maybe 4 hours on batteries. This ties into the military needs, but has obvious consumer applications, such as portable appliences which need to be refueled maybe once a year, or even a "cordless outlet" which could furnish 120 volt AC power for hundreds of hours silently. Edison 16:59, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

New micropower technologies
The following developments need to be added to the article:
 * [] June 4, 2007 press release, University of Utah. Orest Symko, a University of Utah physics professor, and students developed Thermal Acoustic Piezo Energy Conversion (TAPEC). devices of a cubic inch or so which convert waste heat into acoustic resonance and then into electricity. For microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS. Funded by Army. To present paper at Acoustical Society of America June 8.Edison 14:27, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Atlanta, Georgia, April 5, 2007. From a (UPI) story. Professor Zhong Lin Want of the Georgia Institute of Technology said his team of investigators had developed a "nanometer-scale generator (which) is based on arrays of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires that move inside a "zigzag" plate electrode." Built into shoes, it could generate electricity from walking to power small electronic devices. It could also be powered by blood flow. An account of the device was to appear in the Journal Science April 6, 2007.  Atlanta, Georgia, July 19, 2007. From a (UPI) story. Lead investigator Professor Zhong Lin Wang and colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology  of the Georgia Institute of Technology said his team had developed a nanogenerator, reported in the August 8 isue of the journal "Nano letters, which could power implanttable biomedical devices. The device would be powered by flowing blood or a beating heart. It could function while immersed in body fluids,and would get its energy from ultrasonic vibrations. Edison 13:49, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I incorporated these technologies into the article and made it more general coverage of technologies for replacing batteries with micro or nano scale generators. Edison 15:01, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * U of Illinois research (Min-Feng Yu) with generation from a single nanowire: to be added. Edison 13:42, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Harvard chemists created a nanowire of silicon which generates electricity with 3.4% efficiency. Summary in Sciencedaily of article in Nature. Charles M. Lieber is the principle investigator. To be added to the article. Edison 16:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)


 * "Human Body Heat To Power Cell Phones? Nanowires Enable Recovery Of Waste Heat Energy" ScienceDaily (Jan. 11, 2008). From U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley. Arun Majumdar of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley was one of the principal investigators. Per a paper in Nature,January 10, 2008 “Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of Rough Silicon Nanowires.”  Any waste heat, such as from a human, can be converted to electricity via silicon nanowires. Edison (talk) 14:00, 11 January 2008 (UTC)


 * "Nano-breakthrough: Dramatic Increase In Thermoelectric Efficiency Heralds New Era In Heating, Cooling And Power Generation." ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2008). Scientists at MIT {Gang Chen} and Boston College (Zhifeng Ren) produced new improvements in the thermoelectric efficiency of bismuth antimony telluride, a 40% increase in the figure of merit. They used alloy nanostructures that can serve as micro-coolers and power generators. It functions from room temp to 250 Celsius. Edison (talk) 12:43, 22 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Piezoelectric generator in the heel of a shoe could power GPS or other low current draw devices. Edison (talk) 14:15, 28 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Piezoelectric nanowires could power devices from vibration of machinery or movement of shoes or garments. 3 volts, 300 nanoamperes. Edison (talk) 17:52, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Article becoming dated
The entire article is written about speculative technologies, many of which are now a decade old, or older, with no evidence that many of them are still being actively developed. The article could use an update, possibly rewriting some of the descriptions in the past tense, and indicating which, if any, are still in development or may have reached some level of commercialisation. — QuicksilverT @ 15:48, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

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External links modified (January 2018)
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