Design and Preparation of SiC Radiation Isotope Battery

Radiation voltaic isotope batteries have long service life and are easy to miniaturize, making them an excellent choice in the field of micro energy. The use of wide-bandgap semiconductor materials as battery transducer elements theoretically has higher efficiency, but the efficiency value of the samples prepared in the experiment is still low, only at the level of 1%. This article comprehensively analyzes the factors affecting efficiency and points out the importance of the preparation process. Through theoretical calculations and numerical simulation methods, the theoretical output performance of the isotope battery under four representative semiconductor materials and two typical transducer configurations is compared and analyzed. The results show that the theoretical efficiency of the PIN structure SiC battery is the highest, reaching 17%. Combined with the level of preparation technology, optimized design for PIN-type SiC battery and sample preparation were carried out. Under 10 mCi 63Ni source irradiation conditions, the battery samples obtained short-circuit current 8~10 nA, open-circuit voltage 0.45~0.82 V, and efficiency 0.26%~0.60%. Compared with the theoretical design value, the experimental test results still have a certain gap. Through analysis, it is clear that the surface technology is the focus of improving battery performance in the future.