Diode Array Energy Invention

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I was granted U.S. Patent 3890161 in 1973, which is now public property, for a chip that typically consists of billions of nanometer scale diodes in consistent alignment parallel or, for higher voltage, parallel series to rectify and aggregate nano watt level internal radio frequency thermal noise (also known as Johnson noise) within electronic components (not involving antennas) into D.C. electricity. A 2.3 um scale prototype indicated feasibility in 1993 but the records are poor.

If this works, future appliances would get all the energy they were designed for from heat in surrounding air or water. This energy would be clean, cheap, widely available, safe, quiet, reliable, and not emit greenhouse gas. Small appliances would work cordlessly anywhere in the world out of the box. People can increase their capabilities with small appliances in regions without a power grid. Farm irrigation small pumps can be set out without wiring. Furthermore, air conditioning would release electricity instead of consuming it, which is basically more sensible. Food and medicine could be kept cold reliably in stand alone refrigerators without energy expense if portable or paying a little if connected to a power network. Farmers could store their harvest cheaply. Grocery store operators could also sell electricity. Most people would live better on their income. Many kinds of electric vehicles would become practical. These vehicles would be clean enough to run in confined spaces. Vehicles would obtain their energy as they moved so energy storage is not needed. Diode arrays in computers with minor inputs and outputs would recycle the heat from the operating chips so the system would not release heat or need external power while using lots of high power high speed logic.

I want this to be commercialized without fussy licensing restrictions on the diode array or its applications so all humanity can be involved in its synergistic development. NDA's and noncompete requirements are not in this spirit.

First, a prototype development group with great team strength needs to emerge. Later, many application development groups should emerge. Micro angel capitalization is the cleanest form of financing. A smooth, free, and fair market should support useful applications using commodity chips made by commodity equipment.

New applications developers would recover their specific research and development costs with a modest positioning premium on their price.

Aloha
Charles M Brown
Kilauea, Kauai, Hawaii
[email protected]
 
I'll think about buying something with you're invention in it as soon as I see an ad for it. And it's featured in Pop Sci...
 
The invention needs to be prototyped. The 1993 prototype counts only a little. Dies are available containing ~10,000 1 um Au anodes which may be adopted by being soldered updide down to connect all the anodes. These may produce ~50 milliVolts across 25 K ohms ~100 nanowatts. Nanofabricated prototypes may produce watts of power.

Evil uses can be imagined but most uses will be beneficial. I hope civilization develops the diode array.

Aloha
 
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Interesting read. It's something that my father would have just loved to have gotten involved with--he was an elctronical engineer with a physics backing.

It would be far greater, I'd agree, if the world had simple electric appliances with such capabilities. It does remind me of one commercial for some appliance here on Japanese TV that makes hot water from wind--I believe it was?

Thanks for sharing ! 🙂
 
My father was an electrical engineer too. He had some resistance to the diode array concept because he was used to electrical devices only giving off heat. The idea gradually developed so a good explanation wasn't ready quick at hand in 1977. There is a good explanation now, simply that everything goes downhill from kTB which is an intermittant uphill reach.

A hot water tank is a good energy storage means that will directly supply a useful moderately high energy product. The ready hot water can vary in volume at constant temperature with more heating being applied to more water.

Aloha
 
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Whenever I think of alternate energy sources, I always have to ask myself what would happen if it became as widely used as the current standards. In other words, what are the cost-benefits of this new technology? What possible negative ramifications does widespread implementation carry?
 
The diode array should be outstanding in cleanliness because it pulls its energy in when it produces electricity by cooling air or water. No fuels are involved in its use so there is no cost there and no danger of a supply tank becoming empty. It releases no CO2 or other chemicals directly - It can be used to drive chemical reactions. It can be used as reliable refrigeration for cryogenic storage. The cost depends on the power density and the evolution of improvement with manufacturing experience.

People will have a lot of energy anywhere. Sometimes this power will be used in harmful ways against people animals or plants. I expect most of the uses to be beneficial because goodness should prevail. There will be new issues where the best answer isn't clear in the beginning. One such question is how to extend human habitat into undeveloped land without harm to nature. It will also be possible to make artificial imitation or simply new robotic creatures. Life will be interesting and prosperous. Some of the harm from the past and present will have to be repaired. Air conditioners could be used to supply energy for systems that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Aloha
 
As far as i know the governments of the world have suppressed all clean free energy sources from being developed,for obvious reasons.
 
Charles...

I am fascinated by this idea.

I would like to know much more, and tell other interested parties.

Where can I find more on this subject, and what are the more recent developments since October, when you posted.

Thank you for this contribution.

Ed Z
 
Solar power using nano size polymer foil collectors

I mentioned this story on at least one other website...Designcommunity.com...hope I am not repeating myself here...

Does the following polymer foil idea use this diode array technology?

Solar enthusiast are now mentioning a solar powered alternative and rival to wind and ethanol production....using a polymer foil substrate...

Money

From the Telegraph.co.uk website...regarding the Swiss start-up company Flisom

Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

"Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels."

and...

"The "tipping point" will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. We are not there yet. The best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s.

Mr Sethi believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a decade."

This would seem to be wonderful news.

My own concern is the mathematics... "$1 per watt"???. That seems to be a misprint... A lightbulb is 70 watts per hour, and a household might use 20 kwatts in usual usage. That might mean...$20,000 to rewire a house using this new polymer foil technology. It sounds pricey!

And of course, there is the age-old... "What stopped all of us doing this 20 years ago, and what is stopping us now?" Answer...the oil monopoly, I believe.

Note: slight editorial addition...

Two more references, including a very interesting comment on investment partners....
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/thinfilm-solar-clobbering-oil.php

"With the investment dollars of Google's founders, Nanosolar is building a plant in California the capacity of which would catapult it into the top solar makers in the world."

http://www.flisom.ch/e/F_Techn_LCost.html
 
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