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 63Ni isotope sources. Self-absorption of β particles within sources of different thicknesses and β 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/mm2 from 5.05 mCi of 63Ni.