"Smoking Gun" - finally!

[Yucca]

Hi Paul,

I remember reading about your work when you were writing with Charlie a while back on the Steorn forum. I agree with you this is a smoking gun (albeit a tiny gun), it proves that a Maxwells Demon like device is possible and it is obviously scaleable.

Just a thought, you may get better luck with chip fab if you tell them that you are building some novel 2D detector array or something like that?

Also if you could produce the VLSI CAD file yourself then the fabs might take you more seriously. I know one gentleman (he was my tutor) who was the lead programmer of a unix based VLSI design tool called chipwise, you can download it here for free:

http://www.ee.kent.ac.uk/chipwise/uksupport/uksupport.html

One question for you, could you give me any pointers on making a very sensitive and stable voltmeter fairly cheaply, would opamps be useful?

All the best, Yucca.

[Yucca]

@xbox hacker

Thanks for the tip, cool ebay store, have added to my favourite sellers list!

http://stores.ebay.com/OT-Electronics

I´m going to get some very low ESR high voltage caps from them.

Yucca.

[PaulLowrance]

One question for you, could you give me any pointers on making a very sensitive and stable voltmeter fairly cheaply, would opamps be useful?

You can find op-amps that handle just about anything. Most are under $10. Although it depends what you're willing to give up, and what you mean by "stable."  If you want low temp drift, then chopper (zero drift) op-amps are good, but they're very noise. Linear Tech is a good choice.

Linear tech also has some ultra low noise op-amps.

I'm using the INA116P for it's ultra low bias current, typical is 3fA. Since I'm dealing with DC, the output noise isn't a problem. Also the input noise is not a problem because I can place as much capacitance as I necessary to short out the op-amps noise across the input pins. Also, temperature drift is not a problem because I'm using a mechanical toggle switch to reverse to input voltage. In a matter of minutes I can take three measurements, get the two diffs, and take the average of the two diffs. No op-amp temp drift is so bad that it will drift in a matter of minutes.

PL

[Yucca]

@Paul,

Thanks for the info.

I was wrong the VLSI design software i mentioned above is not free to everyone only to students

edit:
I thought this might interest you:
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/22916

Yucca.

[infringer]

One question ...

Heat will be a problem the more energy produced will it not?

Diodes while very rugged are prone to heat issues...

While that might be solved in science already the cost issues of fabrication to eliminate the heat issue has not been solved...

If one diode fails will not the whole array not work leaving us with a set of old school xmas lights that don't work cause there is one bad apple.

We got to think of these things even in beta stages.

-infringer-