| 摘要 |
<p>1,179,954. Thermo-electric generators. NUCLEAR MATERIALS & EQUIPMENT CORP. 6 April, 1967 [2 June, 1966], No. 15797/67. Heading H1K. A power source designed for use in a heart pacer consists of a radio-active heat source around which a plurality of pairs of thermocouple wires are wound in layers, each pair having a hot junction in contact with the source and a cold junction remote from the source. To confine the generated heat to the hot junctions, a suitable reflector of heat is incorporated in the layers. The assembly is mounted in an evacuated enclosure and the heat reflector is preferably of a substance which serves to getter the vacuum, as described and claimed in Specification 1,179,955. The heat source, Figs. 1 and 2, consists of three rods 29 of Pu contained in separate tubular compartments 25 of a fuel cell body 35. This body is supported by tensioned wires 63-67, Fig. 2, of which there are three at each end of the body, and each wire passes from the body over a peg 59 or 61 to a spring clip 71 or 73 which is attached to a bracket 51 on the wall of the housing 83 enclosing the heat source. The thermocouples consist of pairs of wires 91, 93, Fig. 8, made of specified Cu-Ni and Cu-Ni- Mn alloys which are interwoven with quartz threads 103, 105 and covered with fabric 107, 109 to form a cloth in which the wires form either the warp or the woof. The couples are connected in parallel redundant pairs, the pairs being connected in series with all the hot junctions on the heat source and are wound in a spiral about it with the cold junction ends of the couples connected to a terminal on the wall of the easing 83. The generally frusto-conical spaces bounded by the ends of the heat source, the support wires 63-67, and the brackets 51 are filled with a material 171, e.g. Ti-Zr foil, which reflects heat back to the source and is also a vacuum gettering material. Like thermallyreflecting vacuum gettering material is also incorporated in the layers of thermocouple cloth by attaching a Ti-Zr foil 95, Fig. 8, to the fabric 107. The casing 83 is made in two parts 18, 20 which are electron beam welded under high vacuum. One of the parts, 18, carries the pulser 203-e.g. a solid state multi-vibrator circuitwhich is powered by the thermo-generator to provide an output suitable for use of the device as a human or animal heart pacer. The exterior of the casing consists of materials (e.g. titanium, moulded plastic) not incompatible with implantation of the device in a living creature.</p> |
