| 摘要 |
An improved design for maintaining separation between electrodes 1, 2 in tunneling, diode, thermionic, thermophotovoltaic and other devices is disclosed. At least one electrode 1 is made from flexible material. A magnetic field B is present to combine with the current flowing in the flexible electrode 1 and generate a force F that counterbalances the electrostatic force or other attracting forces between the electrodes. The balancing of forces allows the separation and parallelism between the electrodes to be maintained at a very small spacing without requiring the use of multiple control systems, actuators, or other manipulating means, or spacers. The shape of one or both electrodes is designed to maintain a constant separation over the entire overlapping area of the electrodes 1,2. The end result is an electronic device that maintains two closely spaced parallel electrodes 1,2 in stable equilibrium with a uniform gap therebetween over a large area in a simple configuration for simplified manufacturability and use to convert heat to electricity or electricity to cooling. |
