PEM Fuel Cell Assembly

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Objective
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The purpose of this patented invention is to improve the viability of fuel cell devices in miniature scale while simultaneously taking advantage of surface-to-volume scaling relationships to enhance performance. One example manifestation would include a polymer electrolyte material molded with integral flow channels and coated with a suitable catalyst to distribute the necessary reactants for the electrochemical production of electric current. The shaped electrolyte is bonded between metal-film electrodes in wafer-scale packaging to provide a very compact device that resembles an integrated microelectronics circuit chip. Within the fabrication process multiple unit cells are furthermore interconnected in series or parallel as required for the final power configuration. Microfabrication techniques including photolithography etching metal deposition and wafer bonding are integrated to provide a production process that is advantageous in terms of precision reliability manufacturability and unit cost. Applications: Fuel cell fabrication

Benefits

1) Compact - alternative layout is more suitable to micro device fabrication with increased reaction surface area with less impact on volume 2) Scalable - integrated process for large-scale manufacturing

Date of release