Piezoelectric Zero-point Power Units

Abstract

Disclosed are devices which harness and manipulate a quantum effect to apply a cyclic, varying pressure to an integral piezoelectric element or elements to produce an electrical current. These devices utilize the Casimir Effect to efficiently produce more power than they consume during operation and can be used in place of most other electrical power sources, such as chemical batteries, in most contemporary applications and open the door to novel applications which may benefit from their ability to produce power without a need to recharge and over their lifespan.

Claims

1) A device comprising: (a) a structure containing at least one Casimir-vdW cavity which while in operation contains for some portion of time within some portion of said cavity, a fluid; (b) wherein said fluid possesses electromagnetic properties which contribute to the Casimir-vdW forces generated within said Casimir-vdW cavity; (c) wherein some portion of said Casimir-vdW forces are transmitted to a piezoelectric element; (d) wherein said structure includes a component which may be utilized to reduce, negate, or reverse said Casimir-vdW forces; and, (e) wherein said structure includes a component by which said Casimir-vdW forces exerted upon said piezoelectric element may be reduced, negated, or reversed by means of applying an electric charge or electric current to said component.

2) The device of claim 1 wherein a multiplicity of said Casimir-vdW cavities is incorporated therein.

3) The device of claim 2 wherein the Casimir-vdW cavities are arranged in a single layer.

4) The device of claim 2 wherein the Casimir-vdW cavities are arranged in multiple layers.

5) The device of claim 4 wherein the Casimir-vdW cavities are arranged in such a manner as to exert Casimir-vdW forces upon at least one piezoelectric element from opposing directions.

6) The device of claim 1 when used to generate an electric current.

7) The device of claim 2 when used to generate an electric current.

8) The device of claim 3 when used to generate an electric current.

9) The device of claim 4 when used to generate an electric current.

10) The device of claim 5 when used to generate an electric current.

11) A method of manufacturing the device of claim 3 comprising: (a) the creation of standoffs in one or more components by means of hot pressing, photolithography, electron beam etching, ion beam etching, or laser ablation; (b) the creation of a subassembly comprised of at least one electrically conductive component joined to an electrically insulating component; (c) the creation of a subassembly comprised of at least one piezoelectric component joined to at least one electrically conductive component; and, (d) the assembly of said subassemblies and any other needed components to create the device of claim 3.

12) A method of manufacturing the device of claim 4 comprising: (a) the creation of standoffs in two or more components by means of hot pressing, photolithography, electron beam etching, ion beam etching, or laser ablation; (b) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one electrically conductive component joined to an electrically insulating component; (c) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one piezoelectric component joined to at least one electrically conductive component; and, (d) the assembly of said subassemblies and any other needed components to create the device of claim 4.

13) A Method of manufacturing the device of claim 5 comprising: (a) the creation of standoffs in two or more components by means of hot pressing, photolithography, electron beam etching, ion beam etching, or laser ablation; (b) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one electrically conductive component joined to an electrically insulating component; (c) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one piezoelectric component joined to at least one electrically conductive component; and, (d) the assembly of said subassemblies and any other needed components to create the device of claim 4.A method of manufacturing the device of claim 4 comprising: (a) the creation of standoffs in two or more components by means of hot pressing, photolithography, electron beam etching, ion beam etching, or laser ablation; (b) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one electrically conductive component joined to an electrically insulating component; (c) the creation of subassemblies comprised of at least one piezoelectric component joined to at least one electrically conductive component; and, (d) the assembly of said subassemblies and any other needed components to create the device of claim 5.

14) The device of claim 3 when used for providing power to an integrated circuit.

15) The device of claim 4 when used for providing power to a mobile communications device or a mobile computing device.

16) The device of claim 5 when used for providing power to a mobile communications device or a mobile computing device.

17) The device of claim 4 when used for providing power to a means of propulsion for a land, sea, air, or space vehicle.

18) The device of claim 5 when used for providing power to a means of propulsion for a land, sea, air, or space vehicle.

19) The device of claim 4 when used in place of a chemical, thermal, or nuclear battery; fuel cell; electrical power grid; electrical generator; electrical power plant; or other means of providing electrical power.

20) The device of claim 5 when used in place of a chemical, thermal, or nuclear battery; fuel cell; electrical power grid; electrical generator; electrical power plant; or other means of providing electrical power.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEW OF THE DRAWING

[0029] The foregoing aspects and others will be readily appreciated by the skilled artisan from the following description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

[0030] FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-section of a portion of a multi-layer piezoelectric ZPU wherein, for sake of clarity, the different components are drawn out of scale with each other.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031] Before the invention is described in detail, it is to be understood that, unless otherwise indicated, this invention is not limited to particular embodiments, materials, and processes, as such may vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purposes of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting.

[0032] As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms a,an, and the include plural referents unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0033] In this specification and the appended claims, reference will be made to a number of terms that shall be defined to have the following meanings:

[0034] The terms optional or optionally mean that the subsequently described feature or structure may or may not be present, or that the subsequently described event or circumstances may or may not occur, and that the description includes instances where a particular feature or structure is present and instances where it is not, or instances where the event or circumstance occurs and instances where it does not.

[0035] The term electromagnetic means pertaining to or involving the electromagnetic force, or its electric or magnetic components.

[0036] The term permittivity means the relative permittivity, also known as the dielectric constant, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0037] The term permeability means the relative magnetic permeability unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0038] The term material can mean, depending upon the context, a homogenous material, glass, metal, ceramic, heterogenous composite, metamaterial, photonic crystal, liquid, solution, suspension, colloid, gas, plasma, or other substance or material not named, or a combination thereof.

[0039] The term Casimir-vdW forces means forces arising from the electromagnetic dipole interactions, from the differences in quantum vacuum energy densities between certain boundaries and/or spaces, or from the retardation effects arising from the finite speed of light. These forces are known under a variety of names, including: Casimir, Casimir-Polder, Lifshitz, Casimir-Lifshitz, can der Waals', and Casimir-van der Waals'.

[0040] The term Casimir-vdW cavity can either mean, based upon the context, the space between physical boundaries wherein Casimir-vdW forces arise or the structures comprised of both this space and the physical boundaries which generate the Casimir-vdW forces themselves.

[0041] Before embarking on descriptions of particular embodiments of the present invention, it would be beneficial to review some of the relevant theory.

[0042] QED postulates that the vacuum of empty space is not actually empty, but instead consists of a sea of virtual particles constantly popping in and out of existence. This is a fundamental component of quantum field theories such as QED. In QED, this sea of virtual particles is responsible for determining, among other things, the speed of light (in a vacuum), electric permittivity, and magnetic permeability. It also results in the small perturbations affecting dipoles which give rise to van der Waals' forces.

[0043] Van der Waals' forces is the catch-all name used to cover several electromagnetic dipole-dipole interactions. These are forces whose strength drops off rapidly with increasing separation distances. However, at very small separations, they exert significant forces and play a very important role in determining a material's phase properties (e.g., melting point, boiling point).

[0044] Another aspect of this sea of virtual particles in QED is due to the nature of light and its finite speed. This is called retardation. Quantum mechanics also restricts the allowed modes of the virtual particles between two appropriate boundaries. The combination results in the existence of a pressure differential in the pressure from the sea of virtual particles in the space between the two boundaries and the pressure exerted by the sea of virtual particles outside of the boundaries. This results in what is called the Casimir force. Since both the Casimir force and the van der Waals' forces arise due to the seas of virtual particles and can be derived from the same equations, they are sometimes referred to as Casimir-van der Waals' forces (henceforth, Casimir-vdW). These forces are responsible for a range of effects at small distances. These include adhesion, wetting, and stiction effects.

[0045] There are many ways of calculating Casimir-vdW forces. One of the more useful, and general, of these is to treat the Casimir-vdW cavity as being composed of mirrors and writing the interaction energy in terms of the reflection coefficients of these mirrors. The Casimir-vdW energy between two flat, smooth, dielectric plates parallel to each other; separated by a distance, a; and with an intervening fluid or vacuum (filling distance, a) can be written as:

[00001]$E_{123}\left(a\right)=\frac{\mathrm{hA}}{4.Math.{}^2}.Math.\underset{j=\mathrm{TE},\mathrm{TM}}{.Math.}.Math.d^2.Math.\frac{Q}{4.Math.{}^2}.Math.{}_0^{}.Math.d.Math..Math.\ln \left[1-R_{31}^j.Math.R_{32}^j.Math.e^{-2.Math.k_3.Math.a}\right]$

where h is Planck's constant, A is the area, Q is the transverse wave vector, is the frequency, the index j refers to the TE and TM polarization modes, the indices n refer to the cavity faces (1, 2) and intervening fluid (3) respectively, and the reflection coefficients R are given by

[00002]$R_{3,n}^{\mathrm{TE}}=\frac{k_n.Math.{}_3\left(i.Math..Math.\right)-k_3.Math.{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right)}{k_n.Math.{}_3\left(i.Math..Math.\right)-k_3.Math.{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right)}$$\mathrm{and}$$R_{3,n}^{\mathrm{TM}}=\frac{k_n.Math.{}_3\left(i.Math..Math.\right)-k_3.Math.{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right)}{k_n.Math.{}_3\left(i.Math..Math.\right)-k_3.Math.{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right)}$

[0046] where .sub.n(i) is the electric permittivity of component n at imaginary frequency i, .sub.n(i) is the magnetic permeability of component n at imaginary frequency i, and

[00003]$k_n^2=Q-\frac{{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right).Math.{}_n.Math.{}_n\left(i.Math..Math.\right).Math.{}^2}{c^2}.$

The Casimir-vdW force is then given by

[00004]$F_{123}\left(a\right)=\frac{-d}{\mathrm{da}}.Math.E_{123}\left(a\right).$

[0047] As can be seen from these equations, the direction (polarity) of the force can change from attractive to repulsive depending upon the permittivity and permeability values of the components and their arrangement relative to each other. In general, if

.sub.1(i).sub.1(i)>.sub.3(i).sub.3(i)>.sub.2(i).sub.2(i)

holds over a significant range of frequencies, the force will be repulsive. Of course, it must be kept in mind that higher frequencies have higher energies and thus the permittivity/permeability behavior of the components at these frequencies contribute more than at the lower frequencies. However, at high enough frequencies, the cavity components become transparent and thus do not contribute to the Casimir-vdW forces.

[0048] All of the embodiments of the present invention rely on at least one component of the Casimir-vdW cavity to be electrically conductive, as the presence of an electrical charge will disrupt the Casimir Effect. This allows the force being exerted on the piezoelectric element to be reduced, negated, or reversed. This is important as it effects the power produced by the device and allows for altering the power output by enabling the alteration of the frequency with which the pressure is applied to the piezoelectric element and/or by controlling the magnitude of the pressure applied thereto.

[0049] Before turning to the preferred embodiments, one further design principle should be mentioned. Since the forces generated are dependent upon reflectivity, the faces (also called boundaries or half-spaces) of the Casimir-vdW cavity that are meant to be the principal generators of the Casimir-vdW forces within the cavity should be at least as thick as one-tenth their plasma wavelength (for metals this is, effectively, the skin depth). Several times this minimum thickness is preferred. This is because of the greatly reduced reflectivity near or thinner than this thickness. Lesser thicknesses could lead to substantially reduced force generation.

[0050] Now turning to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustrates a small section of a multi-layer piezoelectric ZPU design. In this embodiment, repulsive Casimir-vdW forces are generated by the interaction between component 1 of suitable permittivity, a conductive component 2 of suitable permittivity when electrically neutral, and a fluid component 3 of suitable permittivity. The cavity in which fluid component 3 resides may be formed by standoffs incorporated into component 1 and/or component 2 components. The forces generated are mechanically transmitted through insulating component 4 along with electrically conductive component 6 and/or 7 to piezoelectric component 5 where the resulting pressure produces an electric field within the piezoelectric component 5.

[0051] By applying an electric current to component 2, the repulsive Casimir-vdW forces in the Casimir-vdW are diminshed, negated, or even turned into attractive forces. This relieves the pressure exerted on piezoelectric component 5. By turning off the electric current to component 2 and draining the charge on it, the normal repulsive Casimir-vdW forces are restored to the cavity. Thus, by applying an alternating current to component 2, a modulation of the forces exerted upon piezoelectric component 5 is achieved which results in an AC electric field. Conductive components 6 and 7 allow this AC electric field to be tapped and an AC electric current to be produced.

[0052] Now turning to the preferred methods of manufacturing the embodiments described herein. It is most beneficial to create subassemblies of the various components of the complete piezoelectric ZPU. This includes creation of a piezoelectric element subassembly composed of piezoelectric component 5 sandwiched between electrically conductive components 6 and 7. This is most readily accomplished by coating a piezoelectric sheet with electrically conductive coatings, most often, but not limited to metallic coatings or conductive inks, using techniques, or a combination of techniques, which produce coatings with minimal surface roughness.

[0053] Another subassembly which it is most beneficial to create is one composed of insulating component 4 and electrically conductive component 2. This is most readily accomplished by coating a sheet of insulating component 4 with an electrically conductive coating, most often a metal, utilizing techniques, or a combination of techniques, which produce a coating with a minimal surface roughness.

[0054] It is beneficial to produce the pattern of standoffs on Component 1. These standoffs may be produced by a number of methods, these include hot pressing, photolithography, electron beam etching, ion beam etching, and laser ablation.

[0055] Once the appropriate number of the previously described subassemblies are prepared they may be assembled into the proper configuration to produce the desired piezoelectric ZPU structure. The appropriate electrical connections may then be made. The assembly may be placed into an appropriate housing. Fluid component 3 may then be added. Connections to the driving, power conditioning, and output circuits and/or connectors may then be made.

[0056] Other methods of manufacturing various embodiements may utilize one technique, or a combination of techniques, such as hot pressing, photolithography, laser ablation, electron beam lithography, ion beam lithography, or other nanofabrication methods, to create the standoff patterns. Techniques such as chemical vapor deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, and/or other deposition techniques may be utilized to produce one or more of the various components. The device may be manufactured as one piece or made in subassemblies and subsequently assembled to form the piezoelectric ZPU. Appropriate electrical connections may be added where and when appropriate.

[0057] Piezoelectric ZPUs are compact, versatile energy sources that never require refueling and are environmentally sound to operate. Embodiments may be utilized for powering mobile computing devices and/or mobile communications devices. Land, sea, air, and/or space transportation vehicles, manned and/or unmanned, may also be powered by embodiments of the piezoelectric ZPU. The power output from piezoelectric ZPUs may also be utilized to power home appliances, industrial appliances, and/or other devices, and/or applications, which utilize electrical power, including as a replacement for chemical, and/or other, batteries.

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