Stacked Thin-film Multi-nuclear Voltaic Batteries

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop an energy dense, long lifetime atomic battery. The battery is to be powered by a combination of complementary radioisotopes whose energy is converted directly to electric power by use of purpose-grown pn junction structures. Depending on the configuration, the battery is expected have a lifetime of at least 10 years before its power output drops by fifty percent and to supply up to 40 Watts continuous or surge power depending upon mission configuration. The exceptionally long life and high continuous power output of the device makes it a suitable power source for long-duration and/or low solar resource missions under water and in space as well as in field locations for which resupply or recharge of conventional batteries is prohibitively difficult or expensive. PSIs experience in nuclear engineering, materials engineering and military Li-ion battery fabrication, in combination with the resources, facilities and support offered by Los Alamos National Lab and Argonne National Lab, put it in an exceptionally good position to develop the long-life, high power density atomic battery for the Navy.