Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) Cell Array Assembly Research | W911NF 17 S 0003 SPECIALNOTICE TPV CELL

Opportunity Information: Apply for W911NF 17 S 0003 SPECIALNOTICE TPV CELL

This Department of the Army (Army Research Laboratory, ARL) special notice seeks one partner to collaborate with ARL on research and hands-on development of improved Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell array (TCA) assembly concepts that can be installed and run on ARL's experimental TPV test stand to generate electrical power. ARL has previously built TCAs internally, but is looking for an outside entity with alternative fabrication approaches, deeper assembly experience, and/or better tooling to jointly redesign, assemble, and iterate toward higher-performing and more practical TCA builds. The intended workflow is collaborative and iterative: ARL and the awardee co-develop an improved design, the awardee fabricates proof-of-principle arrays using TPV cells supplied by ARL, ARL tests those arrays on its test stand, and then both parties use the resulting performance data to refine the design through multiple cycles. The end goal is an optimized TCA design that helps ARL understand the practical limits of array performance and its impact on overall test-stand efficiency.

The work is centered on ARL's existing TPV experimental setup, which includes (1) a burner emitter recuperator (BER), (2) the TPV cell array with heat rejection hardware, and (3) the optical/thermal "cavity" between the hot emitter and the TPV cells. In ARL's configuration, the BER uses a cylindrical counterflow burner and a cylindrical emitter tube; one end of the emitter is capped with a thermally insulating lid, while the outer surface of the emitter is heated to roughly 1100 C, with burner surfaces also operating at very high temperature. The TCA physically surrounds the outside of the emitter and consists of TPV cells mounted to heat sinks. The array and heat sinks sit inside a tubular housing that includes an axial-flow fan; the fan pushes air along the housing axis through the heat-sink structures to pull heat away from the cells. The "cavity" is the gap and optical environment between emitter and cells, and its design can include not only emitter and cell surfaces but also reflectors, endcaps, and non-imaging optical filters intended to manage radiation exchange and improve effective conversion through better coupling and photon recycling.

ARL provides details on the current baseline array to frame where improvements are needed. The present design uses 108 TPV cells, each about 0.87 cm by 0.85 cm. The cells are mounted on a circuit board that is scored so it can be bent into a nine-facet, 180-degree semicircle; each semicircle carries 54 cells attached using thermally conductive epoxy. Heat-sink fins are epoxied to the back side of the circuit board, and two such boards form a full 360-degree assembly inside a tubular Teflon housing. Key dimensions include an axial cell-covered length of about 53.5 mm per facet, a roughly 54.5 mm distance across the semicircle from one facet's cell surface to the opposing facet's cell surface, an outer fin diameter of about 87.5 mm, and a housing outer diameter of about 96 mm. A thermocouple is epoxied to the heat-sink base to monitor temperature, and cooling is currently provided by an 80 mm by 80 mm low-power fan driving airflow through the heat sinks.

The central technical motivation is that, while ARL can keep TPV cell temperatures below about 80 C during operation, doing so requires increased fan power, which directly penalizes net system efficiency on the test stand. Since TPV device performance generally benefits from lower operating temperature, ARL is interested in approaches that keep cells cool with less forced-air power, or that otherwise improve the thermal, electrical, and optical effectiveness of the full assembly. The notice highlights several research directions that a collaborator might address, including improved heat sink design, integration, and attachment; improved circuit board form factors and materials; better TPV cell attachment methods (including considerations of thermal conductivity, mechanical reliability, and high-temperature survivability); improved electrical interconnection methods and series/parallel configurations; strategies to reduce required forced-air cooling; methods and materials that can withstand high temperature and high radiation flux environments near the hot emitter and burner; ways to improve view factor between emitter and cells; reduction of inactive TPV cell areas; and increased reflectivity for photon recycling to recover and redirect unusable photons back toward the emitter or into useful paths.

Administratively, this is a discretionary Department of Defense funding opportunity under the ARL BAA referenced as W911NF 17 S 0003, issued as a special notice for TPV cell array assembly research. The agency is the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Materiel Command (ARL). The opportunity anticipates a single award (ExpectedAwards: 1) with an award ceiling of $350,000. The eligible applicant category is listed broadly as "Others" with additional eligibility details referenced in the full notice. The instrument type may be a cooperative agreement, grant, other transaction style instrument, or procurement contract, reflecting that ARL expects close collaboration, shared iteration, and testing by ARL on government equipment rather than a simple deliverable-only research grant. The posting dates in the notice show a creation date of May 12, 2021 and an original closing date of June 11, 2021.

• The Department of Defense, Dept of the Army -- Materiel Command in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) Cell Array Assembly Research" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.431.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 12, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 11, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $350,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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