INTEGRATED MICROSYSTEM FOR THE GENERATION, ADEQUACY AND STORAGE OF ELECTRIC POWER, WHICH IS BASED ON AN ARRANGEMENT OF MICROFLUIDIC FUEL CELLS, SUPERCAPACITORS AND MICROELECTRONIC

The present invention refers to an integrated microdevice formed by three main components: An arrangement of membrane-less microfluidic fuel cells, a means for storing energy based on supercapacitors and a microelectronic interface to be coupled to commercial electronic devices of low power consumption. The microfluidic fuel cell may act as an element for generating energy, this device converting the chemical energy of the liquid fuel into electric energy; it is a stable generation system as the cell will provide energy while a constant inlet of fuel is available; it is a clean system since the reaction products will be water and CO2, depending on the fuel to be used; as it is a membrane-less device, the design of the same allows the device to be miniaturized at a scale competing with current ion-Lithium batteries. The microelectronic interface is intended to regulate and adapt the electric signal resulting from the microfluidic cell for supplying an electronic device of low power co nsumption. Finally, the storage means is a supercapacitor intended to store an important amount of energy in a reduced volume. These three components have been designed in such a manner that each one of their processes (generation, adequacy and storage) may be incorporated in a single device, this is known as Lab on a Cheap technology (LOC). Micromachined, sputtering and microelectronic techniques have been used for achieving a level of miniaturization competitive with some cutting-edge batteries. La presente invención trata de un microdispositivo integrado que incluye tres componentes esenciales: un arreglo de celdas de combustible microfluídicas sin membrana, un medio de almacenamiento de energía basado en supercapacitores y una interfaz microelectrónica para su acoplamiento a dispositivos electrónicos comerciales de bajo consumo. La celda de combustible microfluídica funciona como el elemento generador de la energía, este dispositivo convierte la energía química del combustible líquido en energía eléctrica, es un sistema de generación estable, ya que mientras exista un ingreso constante de combustible, la celda proporcionará energía; es limpio ya que los productos de la reacción de acuerdo con el combustible que se ingrese será agua y CO2; al ser un dispositivo sin membrana el diseño permite miniaturizar el dispositivo a una escala que compita con las actuales baterías ion-Litio. La interfaz microelectrónica tiene la función de regular y adecuar la señal eléctrica provenien