Optimization and temperature effects on sandwich betavoltaic microbattery

Abstract

The design scheme of a sandwich-structure betavoltaic microbattery based on silicon using 63Ni 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.