Neah Power Announces Transition to Larger Silicon Electrodes for Higher Volumetric Energy Density

Neah Power Systems, a developer of fuel cells for military application and portable electronic devices, announced today that it has transitioned to the larger (43x43mm) electrodes, from its previously used 30x30mm electrodes. According to Neah Power Systems these larger electrodes will better utilize the 6” and 8” Silicon wafers used to produce the electrodes. These developments were funded in large part through Neah Power’s Department of Defense contract administered by the Office of Naval Research.

Dr. Art Homa, VP of Technology, and Chief Scientist has claimed that in moving to a larger overall electrode structure, several advantages will be realized including:
1) The absolute amount of active area for power generation available is 2.5X the previous electrode design, resulting in higher absolute power as well as significantly higher efficiency of area utilization.
2) The packaging infrastructure needed to support the fluidic requirements of the cell is significantly reduced on a total volume basis.
3) These increases in active area, in addition to other design elements relating to the new electrode size, are expected to result in a significantly higher overall amount of power on a volumetric basis, enabling industry-leading volumetric energy densities.”

“This is an important step in our technical progress. The new 43mm electrode size development is exciting and further supports our continued efforts leveraging the benefits of our unique porous silicon architecture,” said Dr. Chris D’Couto, President & CEO of Neah Power. “Our efforts to obtain greater power densities, reliability, scalability, and manufacturability are crucial to providing the most competitive power solution for the military and portable electronics market.”

Source: Fuel Cell Today