Micropelt announced that it has opened what the company is claiming to be the world’s first automated high volume production site for thermoelectric chip devices has been officially opened by Micropelt at their new location in Halle/Saale, near Leipzig. 400 m² (4,300 sqft) of production space include a customized clean room and the facilities to produce thermoelectric thin films on 6″ silicon wafers, which are processed further into tiny micro coolers, sensors and thermogenerators. Unsurpassed power densities of Micropelt’s structured thin films can pump many watts of heat or generate Milliwatts of electrical power on 10 mm² (0.016 in²). Around 15 million Euros are being invested to turn the company’s technical world leadership into a corresponding market success.
“Going to volume production is a big and important milestone for us”, said Micropelt’s CEO, Fritz Volkert. “By the same token we lay the groundwork for a major change in the use of energy and resources in private households, public institutions as well as corporations around the world.” Volkert refers to the new market of thermogenerator-driven wireless sensors and micro actuators. The company is certain that processes and production equipment will soon be fully monitored by low-cost self-organizing wireless sensor networks (WSN). According to this concept both operations and maintenance can switch to always current measured data, providing for continuously improving process efficiencies and on one hand and maximized asset utilization along with optimized maintenance scheduling and execution, at both minimal cost and risk.