Progress toward a Microfabricated Gas Turbine Generator for Soldier Portable Power Applications

MEMS turbocharger and electric generator devices have been fabricated and tested as part of a program at MIT to develop a microfabricated gas turbine generator for portable power applications. The overall efficiency of this device, relative to its conventional-scale brethren, is limited by small-scale physics and microfabrication constraints. However, even at modest efficiency levels, the performance of a microscale engine is considerably better than batteries, offering the potential for about seven times the energy density of today’s best batteries when operating with a conversion efficiency of 10% and using a liquid hydrocarbon fuel such as JP8. Using a MEMSbased batch fabrication process offers the potential for low cost. The small device scale allows for high levels of power density. For the soldier, this device would serve as a battery replacement providing 10-20 W of power. As the gas turbine generator is a complex system, its development has included several intermediate devices. This paper presents results from the initial demonstration of several of these intermediate MEMS devices, including a turbocharger, an electric induction generator, a magnetic induction motor and a permanent magnet generator.