Closely spaced electrodes with a uniform gap

Abstract

An improved design for maintaining separation between electrodes in tunneling, resonant tunneling, diode, thermionic, thermo-photovoltaic and other devices is disclosed. At least one electrodeis made from flexible material. A magnetic field B is present to combine with the current flowing in the flexible electrodeand generate a force or a thermal expansion force combined with a temperature distribution 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 electrodesis designed to maintain a constant separation over the entire overlapping area of the electrodes, or to minimize a central contact area. The end result is an electronic device that maintains two closely spaced parallel electrodes 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.