THERMO-ELECTRICAL TRANSFORMATION IN AN OPEN ENVIRONMENT AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
HUI FANG *
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, 210023, China
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The process of diode rectifying resistor thermal noise in an open environment is analyzed. While the components stay at the same temperature, the circuit produces a positive average current which drives output load. Thus a temperature difference emerges on the center and two ends of the diode because the temperature of the resistor drops. This temperature difference generates a reverse current. The positive average current, the reverse current and the temperature difference will come into a state of equilibrium. The heat lost in the resistor is compensated by the heat absorbed from the surrounding environment. To estimate the output power, the circuit is simulated without considering heat exchange by existing simulation software. According to the simulation results, the condition of the circuit outputting nonzero average current is presented. This condition can be satisfied by the technology available today.
Keywords: Thermo-electrical transformation, open environment, resistor thermal noise, second of law of thermodynamics