Abstract
Betavoltaic radioisotope microbatteries have gradually become the research direction of micro-power sources because of their several advantages, including small scale, stable output performance, long service life, high energy density, strong anti-jamming capability, and so on. Based on the theory of semiconductor physics, the current paper presented a design scheme of isotope microbattery with wide-gap semiconductor material GaN and isotope 147Pm. In consideration of the isotope’s self-absorption effect, the current paper studied and analyzed the optimization thickness of semiconductor and isotope source, junction depth, depletion region thickness, doping concentration, and the generation and collection of electron hole pairs with simulation of transport process of beta particles in semiconductor material using Monte Carlo simulation program MCNP. In the proposed design scheme, for a single decay, an average energy of 28.2 keV was deposited in the GaN, and the short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, and efficiency of a single device were 1.636 μA/cm2, 3.16 V, and 13.4%, respectively.
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Tang, X., Liu, Y., Ding, D. et al. Optimization design of GaN betavoltaic microbattery. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 55, 659–664 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-011-4739-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-011-4739-8