Abstract
In the present paper, overview of micro thermo-fluids system is presented as a contact between thermal engineering and MEMS. Strategy for reducing scale is discussed toward significant improvement of existing macro-scale devices or development of devices with new functions; use of scaling effect such as reduction in volume-to-surface ratio, use of atomistic effect, and taking advantage of mass production using semiconductor process. Power MEMS, which is micro/nano technology for energy conversion, is introduced with recent activities in the area. As a high-power-density fuel-based micro power system that can work without peripherals, micro thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power generation system is presented. A micro catalytic combustor using high-precision ceramic tape-casting technology for micro TPV system has been developed. Pd/Nano-porous alumina is employed for the catalyst layer in order to achieve high temperature operation. Catalyst arrangement that gives much smaller temperature gradient has been proposed based on a series of CFD analysis.
