In view of the development of a miniature PEM fuel cell operating at low temperature on hydrogen or direct methanol as anodic feed and air as cathodic feed, we present preliminary results on the performances obtained by employing silicon-based microfabrication techniques and advanced materials which can be easily integrated in silicon technologies, such as porous silicon for the electrode fabrication and PEEK-WC for membranes alternative to Nafion. Powder blasting and reactive ion etching (RIE) have been used for obtaining anode and cathode micro-channels for hydrogen and methanol, in glass and in silicon bipolar plates. Localized micro-fusion processes have been successfully employed for sealing between silicon and membrane.
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