The design scheme of a sandwich-structure betavoltaic microbattery based on silicon using63Ni is presented in this paper.This structure differs from a monolayer energy conversion unit.The optimization of various physical parameters and the effects of temperature on the microbattery were studied through MCNP.For the proposed optimization design,P-type silicon was used as the substrate for the betavoltaic microbattery.Based on the proposed theory,a sandwich microbattery with a shallow junction was fabricated.The temperature dependence of the device was also measured.The open-circuit voltaic(Voc)temperature dependence of the optimized sandwich betavoltaic microbattery was linear.However,the Voc of the betavoltaic microbattery with a high-resistance substrate exponentially decreased over the range of room temperature in the experiment and simulation.In addition,the sandwich betavoltaic microbattery offered higher power than the monolayer betavoltaic one.The results of this paper provide a significant technical reference for optimizing the design and studying temperature effects on betavoltaics of the same type.
LIU YunPengTANG XiaoBinXU ZhiHengHONG LiangWANG PengCHEN Da
A nuclear battery consisting of a beta source,a phosphor layer and a photovoltaic device was prepared.Planar phosphor layers were synthesized through physical precipitation of ZnS:Cu,ZnS:Ag or SrAl_2O_4:Eu^(2+),Dy^(3+)phosphors.The radioluminescence(RL)spectra were used to analyze the RL effects of the phosphor layers under beta-particle excitation.Feasibility of using the materials as intermediate absorbers in the beta batteries was studied.TheⅠ-Ⅴcharacteristics of beta RL nuclear batteries with different phosphor layers were tested using^(63)Ni or^(l47)Pm beta sources.The output power of zinc sulfide matrix phosphor layer was better than that of rare-earth element oxides.In addition,a thin aluminum reflective layer was vacuum-evaporated on the phosphor layers to improve the efficiency of beta RL nuclear batteries,and the results were discussed.
