And while the device's designers try to increase its output from 2.5 watts enough to power a bicycle headlamp to 30 watts or more within the next year, they're also attempting to make it even smaller. But this could give us tiny little engines serving the same purpose as batteries. It's all part of a movement in the mechanical engineering field known by insiders as MEMS, an acronym for micro electro mechanical systems.
MEMS make use of miniaturizing technology first developed in the production of computer chips.
It's very exciting as we begin fabrication of the micro-engine. Serving as leader of the ongoing project is Carlos Fernandez-Pello, a mechanical engineering professor who developed the engine with the help of Knobloch, Fu and fellow grad student Fabian Martinez, along with two other engineers. So is the U.S. military, which hopes to use the engine to power field sensors that track helicopters, among other uses. He says the improved engine should be able to run 10 times longer than the life of a conventional lithium ion battery. In other words, refueling would be required 10 times less often than changing that battery.