Seminar on Hydrogen Power System for Enhancing Time of Flight of Drone Operation

Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST

This talk will give an introduction of the state-of-art micro solid oxide fuel cells (micro-SOFCs) using silicon-based micromachining technology to achieve a breakthrough increase in time of flight of drone operation by developing a larger lateral dimension of such electrochemical energy conversion devices. The lateral dimension of the nanoscale thin film electrolyte membrane, which the thickness is only tens of nanometer, has been chronically limited to only hundreds of micrometers scale due to the fragile thin oxide membrane. Through our unique design from the mechanics approach to relieve the stress level of the membrane, and with the help of a simple combinatorial etching process, the lateral dimension of the micro-SOFCs electrolyte membrane was increased to several millimetres scale. The technology breakthrough introduced here can further the practical application of such promising device closer to commercial manufacturing stage in the area including unmanned aviation vehicles (UAVs) or military drones which needs longer time of flight for expanding drone applications.