Design of A High-Power Density Flux-Switching Microgenerator for A Steam-Driven Microturbine

This paper reports the design of a MEMS flux-switching generator that is to be integrated with a high temperature steam microturbine for thermal energy harvesting applications. Considering that the rotor will be exposed to high temperatures (500°C), the generator design was uniquely adapted by having the magnets located in the stator rather than the rotor, thus being categorized as a flux-switching generator. FEM simulations indicate that the three-phase, axial flux-switching generator (outer radius of 2 mm, rotor thickness of 400 um) would produce an electrical power output of 2.2 W to a balanced three-phase resistive load with an efficiency of 64% when spinning at 1 MRPM.