What practical applications are there for a 100 microwatt power source?
There are places you can use micropower sources. And Nickel 63 isn't a bad choice of isotope. Half life is 96 years so that 100 microwatt battery will be producing something like 80 microwatts at the end of the 25th year.
So use it to charge a supercap and once a day you can do a burst transmission for a minute using a 100 milliwatts of power. Things like that. But drones are out of the question. It would interesting to find out if the outrageous claims are made by Betavolt, or are the various technically obtuse media going wild with a little information.
So use it to charge a supercap and once a day you can do a burst transmission for a minute using a 100 milliwatts of power. Things like that. But drones are out of the question. It would interesting to find out if the outrageous claims are made by Betavolt, or are the various technically obtuse media going wild with a little information.
The info is there. 100uW, size, and 8.8% conversion efficiency. You can run the numbers on the size and weight required for the 1W version (it ain't pretty). But of course no one bothers, because you just run with sensationalist headline and job done.
The size part may not be that bad. Chances are that much of the current version is radiation shielding. A larger cell would not need that much more shielding.
Some 8.8 % conversion efficiency sounds realistic. One may not reach that with silicon cells, but diamond may be a little better here, due to the high bandgap.
The loading curve would likely be very close to a PV cell: a constant current shunted with some diodes in series. With diamonds large bandgap they may get away with just 2 or 3 diodes in series.
A problem with the 1 W cell would be the heat : it would still produce some 10 W of heat all the time.
Even though a low energy beta emitter, there are limitations on handling radioactive materials. Even the 100 µW version may get problems with the legal limits and would likely need special care, tracking.
For the lifetime there is the decay of the radioactive source, but also the radiation damage to the conversion cells. With the low power density this may not be that bad.
There were some pacemakers with a nuclear battery (AFAIK still the thermolelectric way with PU238) made in the USSR.
When comparing to other batteries the nuclear battery would provide power all the time, a normal battery one uses it's capacity when actual current flows
Seems like Winston Sterzel is a huge fan of Dave.
Seems like Winston Sterzel is a huge fan of Dave.
Hadn't seen that.
I've been following Winton's stuff for years. Did some great motorbike tours of China.