Micro fuel cell technologies, advancements, and challenges

Compact fuel cells are gaining widespread recognition as the next generation power sources for portable and micro-scale electronics. Fuel cells are being implemented at the macro as well as microscale to provide pollution-free, high-density energy for various electronic applications. Micro fuel cells have been an innovative step in the direction of fuel cell miniaturization, and technologies are currently being developed for their commercialization. This paper is a review of micro fuel cell technologies based on an extensive study of the existing literature with the objective of identifying common components, designs, and fabrication methods for silicon based fuel cells, and compiling that information into a single location. This paper also evaluates the potential prospects for silicon micro fuel cells and various approaches employed to overcome several technical challenges.