September 16, 2011 — Sensors have the potential to do everything from monitor airplane fuselages for cracks to improve wrist rotation in prostetic arms. Student researchers had a chance to share their sensor development work at Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) TECHCON 2011, September 12-13 in Austin, TX. Here, they describe each experiment in video blogs from the conference.

Dryg and Jiang both work on sensor development. Dryg’s work is on controlling prosthetic arms with magnetic sensors. By implanting a magnet into the wearer’s forearm and installing sensors around the prosthetic, researchers can track the magnetic field during arm movement. A motor could then control the mechanical wrist better. Jiang’s study covers wireless sensors for environmental applications. These sensors could detect environmental changes.

Owens is focusing her sensor research on a harsh environment: aluminum panels in airplanes. Southwest Airlines made headlines in April 2011 when a fuselage ruptured on a passenger airplane traveling at 36,000 feet. Owens wants to prevent this kind of dramatic in-flight failure with sensors that keep track of fuselage health and detect fractures early, sending a wireless signal to the airline alerting of where the crack is and how long it is. The sensors are sensitive right now, and will need accuracy improvements. When will we see this safety technology on a passenger flight? Within the next 10 years, OWens says.

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September 15, 2011 – PRWEB — Silicon-based thermoelectric developer Alphabet Energy Inc. closed its Series A funding round with $12 million, led by TPG Biotech, the venture arm of TPG. Existing investors Claremont Creek Ventures and the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund also contributed.

After its $1 million seed financing in May 2010, Alphabet Energy achieved key technology and product milestones, the company reports. Alphabet Energy will use the money to accelerate product development, deploy initial pilot projects, create jobs, and relocate to a San Francisco, CA-area facility.

Dr. Mark Gudiksen of TPG Biotech has joined Alphabet’s board of directors, with Dr. Geoff Duyk of TPG Biotech joining as a board observer. Matt Scullin, Alphabet’s CEO and founder, noted that Gudiksen and the TPG Biotech team bring deep technical expertise, global reach, and a "big-picture vision" to the company’s silicon thermoelectric business. Other new scientific and entrepreneurial advisors have recently joined the team: Dr. Lon Bell, one the world’s leading inventors in the field of thermoelectrics, joined as a technical and strategic advisor, while Eric Ries, the Lean Startup expert, will advise on how best to optimize the company’s technology and products for market opportunities.

The company’s first product is a silicon thermoelectric heat-to-power conversion device, currently undergoing prototyping. It has identified the medium- to high-grade waste heat conversion market as the ideal sector for these products. Initially, Alphabet Energy’s waste-heat-to-electricity generators will utilize hot exhaust gas from heavy industrial applications and engines as an energy source. The output range of power generation from Alphabet’s products can be from microwatts to megawatts.

The silicon-based thermoelectric conversion devices allow Alphabet Energy to leverage existing MEMS and semiconductor manufacturing expertise and capacity, following a fabless model. Prototyping rounds and scale-up will be faster thanks to this model, the company asserts.

Alphabet’s silicon-based, fabless model could bring thermoelectrics electricity generation costss in "at or below grid parity," said Mark Gudiksen of TPG Biotech, meaning that the electricity generated from waste heat would cost the user less than electricity purchased from a traditional source. Alphabet Energy is the "only one in the field" to demonstrate this possibility, he added.

Alphabet could tap "enormous multi-billion dollar markets" with a commercial product launch, added Paul Straub, a director at Claremont Creek Ventures, who praised the wide range of potential users and Alphabet’s device performance and cost benefits.

The CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund is a seed and early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to clean energy. For more information visit http://www.calcefangelfund.com.

Claremont Creek Ventures is a seed and early-stage venture firm for emerging technologies, specifically in the healthcare/IT, energy conservation, and security markets. For more information, visit http://www.claremontvc.com.

TPG Biotech is part of the growth equity and venture investment platform of TPG, the global private investment firm. TPG Biotech targets investments in pharmaceutical discovery and development, medical technology, diagnostics, healthcare and pharmaceutical services, life sciences, as well as industrial applications of biotechnology. Please visit http://www.tpgbiotech.com.

Alphabet Energy develops waste-heat recovery products based on technology developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For more information, see http://www.alphabetenergy.com

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September 14, 2011 — MIT researchers have developed a micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) that harvests energy from low-frequency vibrations, and occupies a coin-sized form factor. MIT’s MEMS device picks up a wider range of vibrations than current designs thanks to a bridge, rather than cantilever, MEMS structure.

The aim is to replace batteries on far-flung and ubiquitous wireless sensor networks (WSN). For example, the MEMS energy harvesters could power bridge-structure monitoring sensors by converting the bridge’s swaying and vehicle-traffic vibrations to electricity. This device provides the "supportive power package" to bring WSNs into their full potential application, said Sang-Gook Kim, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.

The MIT design increases the MEMS frequency range with maximum power density, able to generate 100 times the power of devices of similar size. Rather than using piezoelectric material (PZT) on a cantilever MEMS device, the researchers created a bridge anchored to the chip at each end. A single layer of piezoelectric material was deposited onto the bridge structure, with a small weight in the middle. In a series of vibration tests, the MEMS device responded over a range of low frequencies. The researchers calculated that the device was able to generate 45 microwatts of power with a single layer of PZT.

PZT accumulates electric charge when acted upon by mechanical forces. MIT’s use of PZT avoids frequency limitations found with cantilever designs, and also prevents the use of too much piezoelectric material, which can be costly, said Arman Hajati, who conducted the work as a PhD student at MIT. The energy harvester is designed to work with real-world variables, like changing frequencies, and real-world purchasing budgets.

If the energy harvester costs $10, a WSN of millions of sensors could be too costly, says Kim, who is a member of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories. This single-layer MEMS design can be fabricated for less than $1.

Still, few vibrations in nature occur at the relatively high frequency ranges captured by the device, so the MIT team is optimizing the MEMS design to respond to a lower frequency range. They aim for 100 microwatt energy capture, said Hajati, now a MEMS development engineer at FujiFilm Dimatix. 100 microwatts can power a network of smart sensors that can talk forever with each other.

Results are published in the August 23 online edition of Applied Physics Letters. Access it here: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v99/i8/p083105_s1?isAuthorized=no

Learn more at http://web.mit.edu/.

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