An energy harvest is disclosed. The disclosed energy harvest includes: a first charging member including a plurality of first protruding parts; and a second charging member including a plurality of second protruding parts arranged between the first protruding parts and including a material different from that of the first protruding parts. When at least one of the first and second charging members moves, side surfaces of the first protruding parts and side surfaces of the second protruding parts come into contact with each other, or gaps between the side surfaces of the first protruding parts and the side surfaces of the second protruding parts are changed. The energy harvest generates electrical energy from the contact or the gap change.

A portable power supply according to the present invention is provided with a combustion device (20) and a heating container (30) that retains an object to be heated, wherein at least a part of a portion of the heating container, the portion being directly heated by the combustion device, is provided with a magnetic metal plate (32) that has spontaneous magnetization and that generates electromotive force due to an anomalous Nernst effect induced by the heating, and wherein electrodes (33a, 33b) for drawing power are provided. Thus, the heating container for generating electricity has a simple configuration, and furthermore the portable power supply is provided with both the heating container and the combustion device.

A calorimeter with a heat sink that includes a diffusion-bonded block that has higher thermal conductivity laterally across the block than through the block. The diffusion-bonded block has multiple metallic layers that are diffusion-bonded together, with relatively higher thermal conductivity layers alternating with relatively lower thermal conductivity layers. The diffusion-bonded block may be used in differential scanning calorimeters, multi-cell differential scanning calorimeters, nano-differential scanning calorimeters and isothermal titration calorimeters, as well as other calorimeters that measure differential heat flow to and/or from a sample with respect to the heat flow to and/or from a reference.

A bi-stable micro-electrical mechanical system (MEMS) heat harvester is provided. A bi-stable MEMS cantilever located between a hot temperature surface and a cold temperature surface, and is made up of a first MEMS material layer, having a first coefficient of thermal expansion. A second MEMS material layer is in contact with the first MEMS material layer, and has a second coefficient of thermal expansion less than the first coefficient of thermal expansion. A tensioner, made from a material having a tensile stress greater than the stress of the first or second MEMS materials, is connected to the cantilever. The heat harvester also includes a mechanical-to-electrical power converter, which may be a piezoelectric device or an electret device. The bi-stable MEMS cantilever may include a thermal expander having a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than the second coefficient of thermal expansion. The thermal expander is connected to the tensioner.

We disclose herein a thermal IR detector array device comprising a dielectric membrane, supported by a substrate, the membrane having an array of IR detectors, where the array size is at least 3 by 3 or larger, and there are tracks embedded within the membrane layers to separate each element of the array, the tracks also acting as heatsinks and/or cold junction regions.

We disclose an array of Infra-Red (IR) detectors comprising at least one dielectric membrane formed on a semiconductor substrate comprising an etched portion; at least two IR detectors, and at least one patterned layer formed within or on one or both sides of the said dielectric membrane for controlling the IR absorption of at least one of the IR detectors. The patterned layer comprises laterally spaced structures.

A photothermal converter using a wavelength selective perfect absorber made of a low-loss metal material or dielectric and a heat detection sensor are combined to develop a sensor that efficiently converts light of a specific wavelength into heat and further electrically detects the heat. Here, since the wavelength selective perfect absorber of the present invention has a periodic structure, it has high directivity, and can also be used as a small motion sensor or a watching sensor using detection of thermal radiation. In addition, it can also be used as a high-precision small position sensor by being combined with a laser light source matching the resonance wavelength of the sensor.

A pyroelectric device, comprising a plurality of layers of a polar dielectric material having a pyroelectric coefficient, p, wherein each layer exhibits pyroelectric properties; a plurality of conductive electrodes, wherein each conductive electrode is substantially in contact with at least a portion of one surface of a respective at least one of said plurality of layers of polar dielectric material, wherein said electrodes are electrically connected in a parallel configuration as to form a series of capacitors comprised of said plurality of layers of polar dielectric material and plurality of conductive electrodes.

A pyroelectric device having a substrate and a first electrode overlying at least a portion of the substrate. A plurality of spaced apart nanometer sized pyroelectric elements are electrically connected to and extending outwardly from the first electrode so that each element forms a single domain. A dielectric material is deposited in the space between the individual elements and a second electrode spaced apart from said first electrode is electrically connected to said pyroelectric elements.

A solid-state heat transporting device including a heat transporting element whose uniformity of contact with one or multiple surfaces is controllable so that various amounts of heat may be transported to and from the one or multiple surfaces. The heat transporting element uses the electrocaloric effect to absorb and release the heat and the uniformity of contact is controlled using an electrostatic effect which may change the shape of the heat transporting element. In one embodiment, the heat transporting element is an electrostatically actuated P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) polymer stack achieving a high specific cooling power of 2.8 W/g and a COP of 13 (the highest reported coefficient of performance to date) when used as a cooling device.