Research Goal

The IMCC is a project to develop a highly efficient, extremely light weight, flexible vapor-compression cycle heat pump, utilizing relatively large polymer heat exchangers, each driven with a MEMS-based compressor. The heart of the compressor utilizes a touch capacitance compressor, with a polymer-based flexible diaphragm squeezing the vapor to several atmospheres of pressure. The IMCC utilizes new MEMS process development, new materials development for the compressing diaphragm, the development of a novel 3-D cavity fabrication technology in silicon wafers, and new fabrication methods for flexible polyimide heat exchangers. Several papers have been published to date on this collaborative work with 10 research groups, and more are in preparation. (DARPA)

Research Team:

Acknowledgement:

Work partially supported by National Science Foundation grant # & Office Naval Research Grant #

Related Publications: