charlesmbrown
08-22-2005, 04:51 AM
I hold U.S. Patent 3,890,161, DIODE ARRAY, a chip containing very many very small diodes that absorbs uniform ambient heat and releases D.C. Electrical power. As a 1975 patent, it was, as of 8 / 2005 available in image form only, not yet in electronically searchable text form. The original materials specified in the patent have been superseded.
In 1993, I commissioned the preparation and testing of an adapted satellite transponder chip containing 5,600 Au on GaAs diodes fabricated in a patch as an expedient for assemblers to find one diode where diodes operating at high frequencies have to be very small. Conductive paste was applied over the face of the chip to connect all the diodes in consistent alignment parallel as required. Next the chip was immersed in a constant temperature pure vegetable oil bath inside a shielding box in the California desert. The chip produced ~25 times 1/2 kTB watts where an output more than 1/2 kTB watts validates the theory that electrical thermal noise (Johnson Nouse) can be rectified and aggregated.
A similar chip, the 1T7, intended for radio astronomy, is available this 8 / 2005 for $500 from a company which does not want public exposure as being associated with me. They will, however, ship when the check clears.
An advanced design would use evenly dispersed C60 buckyballs as schottky anodes on N type InSb. This could produce 100 billion diodes / cm^2 which may produce ~100 watts / cm^2 at 20 C, depending on how closely the depletion regions of the diodes can be crowded.
Michael Huff mhuff@mems-exchange.org at the Stanford MEM network, http://www.memsnet.org/links/foundries , a network of nanotechnology developers, has quoted $50,000 to develop this chip.
Recently Ji Ung Lee of GE Global Research in New York fabricated a diode with excellent transfer characterstics from a fully semiconducting C single wall nanotube. C nanotubes are difficult to chemically dope so the researchers substituted two electric fields, to induce N and P characterstics from two nearby insulated electrodes.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/11 .
Perhaps this development can be extended to make an exploratory diode array. It would also extend the investigations of others. It can probably be done quickly and smoothly. It is not as ultimately practical for large scale production as the C60 / n InSb diode array.
The C SWNT device requires a cathode termination, a + gate, an – gate, and an anode termination. These can be fabricated as 4 parallel stripes. Hundreds of semiconductor C SWNTs can cross the support stripes like frets on a stringed musical instrument. Insulating NB nanotubes can separate the C nanotubes.
There is a high series resistance (18 meg ohms) on the present C SWNT diode. A high series resistance is not needed in the diode array application. A stabilizing capacitor can be added.
This is a superior energy source that is very inexpensive and will power small appliances out of the box without a need for power wiring anywhere in the world. It has great potential to improve the prosperity of mankind. Some of the implications for civilization should be discussed. People will have great autonomous power so they should use it responsibly and not do damaging things like damage biomes when they travel with cheap, reliable, autonomous refuge / camper / trekker / adventurer / nomand support equipment. On the other hand, large arcologies will not inevitably go ont of thermal balance (interior lighting heating will be balanced by diode array cooling when supplying electricity to the lights. Being within a pervasive and extensive ambient temperature reservoir it is uninportant what starts first.
The chip should quickly become an open source commodity. I want the applications to be open to the commons too. I would like startup simple angel grants with no public offering. When demonstrated it can pay its way. It is also a hard science tool for science fiction.
Here is an editorial IN PDF FORM that will give a presentation of the second law of thermodynamics (2LT) with some room for people who don't accept it: http://www.mdpi.net/entropy/papers/e6010001.pdf . I think that 2LT is an old hollow paradigm where entropy suddenly becomes an uninportant mathematical term which can increase or decrease.
Information theory is sometimes used in a way similar to 2LT. A diode working with Johnson needs no information of the past, present, or future. There is a fixed transfer function between its input and output determined by fixed responses to internal conditions (no one is instructing the diode to make any change in what it is doing) .
Diodes are somewhat linear at low voltages. Diodes with small cross sections encounter higher voltages for a given amount of power. A very small diode should rectify Johnson noise efficiently. Maximum power is transfered from a source to a load when the electrical impeadance is matched.
The diode array refrigerates as it exports electrical power with no temperature differnce between its cathodes and anodes. The temperature of the electrical load is irrelevant. It can be used in air conditioners that reseases electrical power instead of consuming it.
Aloha,
Charles M Brown
In 1993, I commissioned the preparation and testing of an adapted satellite transponder chip containing 5,600 Au on GaAs diodes fabricated in a patch as an expedient for assemblers to find one diode where diodes operating at high frequencies have to be very small. Conductive paste was applied over the face of the chip to connect all the diodes in consistent alignment parallel as required. Next the chip was immersed in a constant temperature pure vegetable oil bath inside a shielding box in the California desert. The chip produced ~25 times 1/2 kTB watts where an output more than 1/2 kTB watts validates the theory that electrical thermal noise (Johnson Nouse) can be rectified and aggregated.
A similar chip, the 1T7, intended for radio astronomy, is available this 8 / 2005 for $500 from a company which does not want public exposure as being associated with me. They will, however, ship when the check clears.
An advanced design would use evenly dispersed C60 buckyballs as schottky anodes on N type InSb. This could produce 100 billion diodes / cm^2 which may produce ~100 watts / cm^2 at 20 C, depending on how closely the depletion regions of the diodes can be crowded.
Michael Huff mhuff@mems-exchange.org at the Stanford MEM network, http://www.memsnet.org/links/foundries , a network of nanotechnology developers, has quoted $50,000 to develop this chip.
Recently Ji Ung Lee of GE Global Research in New York fabricated a diode with excellent transfer characterstics from a fully semiconducting C single wall nanotube. C nanotubes are difficult to chemically dope so the researchers substituted two electric fields, to induce N and P characterstics from two nearby insulated electrodes.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/11 .
Perhaps this development can be extended to make an exploratory diode array. It would also extend the investigations of others. It can probably be done quickly and smoothly. It is not as ultimately practical for large scale production as the C60 / n InSb diode array.
The C SWNT device requires a cathode termination, a + gate, an – gate, and an anode termination. These can be fabricated as 4 parallel stripes. Hundreds of semiconductor C SWNTs can cross the support stripes like frets on a stringed musical instrument. Insulating NB nanotubes can separate the C nanotubes.
There is a high series resistance (18 meg ohms) on the present C SWNT diode. A high series resistance is not needed in the diode array application. A stabilizing capacitor can be added.
This is a superior energy source that is very inexpensive and will power small appliances out of the box without a need for power wiring anywhere in the world. It has great potential to improve the prosperity of mankind. Some of the implications for civilization should be discussed. People will have great autonomous power so they should use it responsibly and not do damaging things like damage biomes when they travel with cheap, reliable, autonomous refuge / camper / trekker / adventurer / nomand support equipment. On the other hand, large arcologies will not inevitably go ont of thermal balance (interior lighting heating will be balanced by diode array cooling when supplying electricity to the lights. Being within a pervasive and extensive ambient temperature reservoir it is uninportant what starts first.
The chip should quickly become an open source commodity. I want the applications to be open to the commons too. I would like startup simple angel grants with no public offering. When demonstrated it can pay its way. It is also a hard science tool for science fiction.
Here is an editorial IN PDF FORM that will give a presentation of the second law of thermodynamics (2LT) with some room for people who don't accept it: http://www.mdpi.net/entropy/papers/e6010001.pdf . I think that 2LT is an old hollow paradigm where entropy suddenly becomes an uninportant mathematical term which can increase or decrease.
Information theory is sometimes used in a way similar to 2LT. A diode working with Johnson needs no information of the past, present, or future. There is a fixed transfer function between its input and output determined by fixed responses to internal conditions (no one is instructing the diode to make any change in what it is doing) .
Diodes are somewhat linear at low voltages. Diodes with small cross sections encounter higher voltages for a given amount of power. A very small diode should rectify Johnson noise efficiently. Maximum power is transfered from a source to a load when the electrical impeadance is matched.
The diode array refrigerates as it exports electrical power with no temperature differnce between its cathodes and anodes. The temperature of the electrical load is irrelevant. It can be used in air conditioners that reseases electrical power instead of consuming it.
Aloha,
Charles M Brown