Design and simulation of high conversion efficiency betavoltaic battery based on a stacked multilayer structure

Abstract

This paper presents the design and simulation of a high conversion efficiency betavoltaic battery composed of multiple, alternately stacked layers of silicon p-n junction converters and Ni-63 isotope sources. Self-absorption of beta particles within sources of different thicknesses and beta particle energy deposition in the converters are investigated via Monte Carlo simulation. Optimizing the source thickness and doping concentration in the converter significantly improves the conversion efficiency and maximum output power of the proposed battery in comparison to one with a simple two-layer structure but same volume and source activity. The proposed battery can achieve an overall conversion efficiency of 3.3% and output power of 17.48 nW/mm(2) from 5.05 mCi of Ni-63.