Non-decaying electric power generation from pyroelectric materials

• US 8,324,783 B1
• Filed: 04/24/2012
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ultrasolar Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ultrasolar Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Kumar, Santosh
• Primary Examiner(s): ROSENAU, DEREK JOHN
• Application Number:
  US13/454,921
• Time in Patent Office: 224 Days
• Field of Search: 310/306, 310/311
• US Class Current: 310/306
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 15/10 Thermoelectric devices using thermal change of the dielectric constant, e.g. working above and below the Curie point

Abstract

A method, an apparatus and/or a system of non-decaying electric power generation from pyroelectric materials is disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes generating a substantially continuous electric energy from an at least one layer of pyroelectric material when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is subjected to a temporal temperature gradient, a varying electric field and/or a mechanical oscillation. The method also includes creating the temporal temperature gradient, the varying electric field and/or the mechanical oscillation through coupling the at least one layer of pyroelectric material in between a first layer of a first material and a second layer of a second material that harnesses a heat energy and/or an electric field energy to produce the temporal temperature gradient and/or the mechanical oscillation to which the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is subjected.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating a substantially continuous electric energy from an at least one layer of pyroelectric material when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is subjected to at least one of a temporal temperature gradient, a varying electric field and a mechanical oscillation; and

creating the at least one of the temporal temperature gradient, the varying electric field and the mechanical oscillation through coupling the at least one layer of pyroelectric material in between a first layer of a first material and a second layer of a second material that harnesses at least one of a heat energy and an electric field energy to produce at least one of the temporal temperature gradient and the mechanical oscillation to which the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is subjected,

wherein when the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material are a metal coating that radiates black body radiation, the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material generate the temporal temperature gradient in the at least one layer of pyroelectric material through creation of an infrared standing wave when the first layer of the first material absorbs the heat energy and radiates an infrared wave to the second layer of second material through the at least one layer of pyroelectric material and the second layer of the second material reflects the infrared wave to interfere with the incident infrared wave to form the infrared standing wave, and

wherein the temporal temperature gradient is a change in temperature with respect to time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when the first material is a pyroelectric material that is highly polarized and the second material is another pyroelectric material that is strongly polarized with an orientation of polarity different from the polarity of the first material and at least two layers of pyroelectric material that is coupled in between the first layer of first material and the second layer of second material is a pyroelectric material that is of weaker polarization than the pyroelectric material of the first layer of the first material and the pyroelectric material of the second layer of the second material and each of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material is of a different orientation of polarity from each other, the at least two layers of pyroelectric material generate a substantially continuous electric energy via the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material through creating varying electric field strengths between the each layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric materials via an electrostatic induction effect.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the first material is a thermally ionizable material and the second material is a conducting material, the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material create an ionic charge based electric field which when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material coupled in between the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material is subjected to in the presence of a heat energy generates substantially continuous electric energy through exploiting a change in an orientation of an electric dipole associated with the at least one layer of pyroelectric material based on at least one of the ionic charge based electric field and the heat energy.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the first material and the second material are a metal coating that radiates black body radiation and when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material comprises a piezoelectric characteristic along with the pyroelectric characteristic, the at least one layer of pyroelectric material comprising the piezoelectric characteristic along with the pyroelectric characteristic generates substantially continuous electric energy through a resonance effect created when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material comprising the piezoelectric characteristic along with the pyroelectric characteristic is subjected to at least one of the heat energy and the electric field energy.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first layer of the first material and the second layer of the second material generate the substantially continuous electric energy from the at least two layers of pyroelectric material through creating the varying electric field strengths between the each layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric materials via electrostatic induction, the creation of the varying electric field strengths further comprising:

polarizing a first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material when the first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material is subjected to at least one of the heat energy and an electromagnetic induction from the first layer of first material that is strongly polarized, the first layer of first material being adjacent to the first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material; and

changing an electric field strength associated with a second layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material through the electric field associated with the first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material that is generated through polarizing the first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

creating the ionic charge based electric field between the ionic layer and the conduction layer between which the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is coupled when the ionic layer is subjected to the heat energy;

changing the orientation of the electric dipole associated with the at least one layer of pyroelectric material from an initial orientation to another orientation when the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is subjected to the heat energy;

rotating the electric dipole back to the initial orientation from the other orientation through the ionic charge based electric field energy associated with the electric field created between the ionic layer and the conduction layer between which the at least one layer of pyroelectric material is coupled when the electric dipole stops changing orientation thereof based on the heat energy and is currently at the other orientation; and

generating an electric energy based on at least one of the change in the orientation of the electric dipole associated with the at least one layer of pyroelectric material from the initial orientation to the other orientation due to the heat energy and from the other orientation back to the initial orientation due to the ionic charge based electric field energy, the electric energy generated being proportional to the degree of change in orientation of the electric dipole associated with the at least one layer of pyroelectric material.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

discharging the first layer of the at least two layers of pyroelectric material through a discharge circuit.