High Efficiency Betavoltaic Cells

市场对低功率微型电子产品的需求正在迅速增长，植入式电子医疗设备(如减轻帕金森氏症影响的神经刺激器)和微型传感器(例如用于在难以接近和极端环境中进行结构健康监测的微型传感器)所需的长寿命(10年)电源。锂离子电池给便携式电子产品带来了革命性的变化，但它们并不总是满足某些最苛刻的应用对环境、能量密度或电池寿命的要求。用于贝塔伏安能量产生的半导体设备(从放射性同位素源发射的贝塔粒子直接转化为电能)可以克服这些问题，但现有的贝塔伏安技术受到限制；这些设备要么在与理想和安全的低能贝塔发射器(如氚)一起使用时效率低下，要么采用难以大规模生产的复杂设计和结构。该项目将利用STFC以前资助的辐射探测器研究，开发新的Betavoltaic电池，该电池克服了现有Betavoltaic电池的限制，适用于广泛的商业和科学应用。除了科学发展，该项目的一个主要组成部分是为该技术制定商业化计划，以充分实现该工作的好处，并使该技术能够迅速进行商业和科学开发。

Market demand for low-power miniature electronics is increasing rapidly with long-lasting (>10 years) power sources required for implantable electronic medical devices (such as neurostimulators to alleviate the effects of Parkinson's disease) and miniaturised sensors e.g. for structural health monitoring in inaccessible and extreme environments. Li-ion batteries have revolutionised portable electronics, but they cannot always meet the environmental, energy density or battery life requirements for some of the most demanding applications. Semiconductor devices for betavoltaic energy generation (the direct conversion of energy from beta particles emitted from radioisotope sources to electricity) can overcome these problems, but existing betavoltaic technology suffers limitations; the devices either suffer from poor efficiency when used with desirable and safe low energy beta emitters such as Tritium, or employ complex designs and structures which are difficult to mass produce commercially. This project will capitalise on previous STFC funded radiation detector research to develop new betavoltaic batteries which overcome the limitations associated with existing betavoltaics and are suitable for a wide range of commercial and scientific applications. Alongside the scientific development, a major component of this project is the development of a commercialisation plan for the technology in order to fully realise the benefits of the work and enable the rapid commercial and scientific exploitation of the technology.