Energy Conversion. Vol. 16, pp. 55 65. Pergamon Press, 1976.

Printed in Great Britain

A THIN FILM MODULE FOR THERMOELECTRIC

CONVERSION IN A PLUTONIUM-238 BATTERY

B, CHINAGLIA, F. VALLANA and G. BOSIO

Sorin, Societa' Ricerche Biomediche, Saluggia, Vercelli, Italy

(Received 17 September 1975)

Abstraet--A thermoelectric converter based on thin film technology, in which thermocouples are de-
posited by vacuum evaporation of Bi-Te-Sb-Se doped alloys onto a thin polyimide film, is presented
for application in a plutonium battery as power supply in a biomedical device.
High figure of merit and good reproducibility of characteristics of the films are attained by means
of an appropriate technique of evaporation and subsequent annealing, the fundamentals of which
are described in detail.

Thermoelectric conversion Thin film Thermoelectric Cardiac pacemaker Biomedical

1. INTRODUCTION proposed for several years. According to the diagram

Thermoelectric conversion of the heat of decay of a
radioisotope source has found in late years an inter-
esting field of application in batteries for the power
supply of cardiac pacemakers.
The requirements which must be met by such an
energy source are related to the needs of an implan-
table long-life device. Weight and size must be mini-
mized. High reliability is required for each component
of the device, especially with regard to mechanical
shock, vibration and fatigue stresses. Radiation dose
in the body must not exceed critical values for each
organ around the site of implantation.
Electrical power of ttie battery must range from
120 to 300 #W, according to the functional type of
pacemaker and circuit characteristics.
The output voltage is an important parameter,
since it determines the overall efficiency of the pulse
generating circuit and therefore the power require-
ment. In fact, since the pulse amplitude acceptable
for cardiac stimulation is of the order of 5 V, if the
battery voltage output is below this value, a DC-DC
converter is required. The efficiency of such converter
of Fig. I(A) a thin film module is composed by a flex-
ible, band shaped substrate made of an electrically
and thermally insulating material, onto which the
thermocouple legs and the connecting bridges are de-
posited by vacuum evaporation. The converter is
composed by such a band rolled up to form a
cylinder, one base of which is placed in thermal con-
tact with the heat source.
Another possible configuration consists of a series-
parallel connection of two sets of thermocouples, with
the heat source in the middle (see Fig. 1B), which
allows a higher overall reliability. A thin film
thermoelectric module in practice can be composed
by more than one of such bands, series-connected,
ab a d ~e
f
A

NN
decreases rapidly with input voltages below 0.6 V.
ab c d
In most plutonium batteries available up to nob
[1-4] thermoelectric conversion is obtained by an
array of bar thermoelements with extremity connec-
f
tions.
Materials in use are doped semiconductor alloys
of Bi, Te, Se, Sb compounds and the thermoelements
are obtained by slicing sintered blocks. Since
mechanical properties of these materials are poor,
high miniaturization is difficult to achieve, and the B
number of thermocouples fitting in the space avail-
able makes it impossible to obtain output voltages Fig. 1. Scheme of a thin film thermoelectric converter, (al,
in excess of 1 V with this kind of converter. (b) thermoelectric legs, (c) connecting bridges, (d) flexible
insulating substrate, (e) assembled module, (f) heat source.
In order to overcome these limitations, a thermoe- A--Single series _ connection; B--Series-parallel
lectric module based on thin film technology has been connection.
55
 56 CHINAGL1A, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE

and then rolled so that a compact device with a high of-merit thin films by vacuum evaporation followed
number of thermocouples can be obtained. by annealing. The Pu-238 capsule is thermally insu-
The thin film technology offers, in principle, many lated by a vacuum system which acts as mechanical
advantages in the design of a direct conversion device. support, so that the radial dimension is kept at a
The cross section of each thermoelement can be minimum.
reduced to very small figures in comparison with
those attainable with the same material in bulk form.
As a consequence it is possible to get a high number
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
of thermocouples resulting in a high output voltage
without affecting power output and conversion effi- Let us recall the basic equations of thermoelectric
ciency. energy conversion, in order to deduce interesting con-
Another advantage is represented by the connec- siderations for the case of an array of thin film ther-
tions between thermocouple legs, which can be made moelements deposited onto a substrate.
of thin films of suitable metals with non-diffusion It is well known [8, 9], that if:
properties, thus avoiding problems of impurity
W is the electrical power output from the battery,
migration into the semiconductor materials.
Qt is the thermal power flowing through thermoele-
Direct conversion devices based on this concept
meats,
can attain limited figures of heat capacity and thermal
$1,2 is the Secbeck coefficient of the couple of mater-
conductance and are therefore suitable for various
ials 1 and 2,
kind of thermometric applications, such as micro-
k~ (i = 1,2) is the thermal conductivity of material i,
calorimeters of good sensitivity and response time,
ai (i = 1,2) is the electrical conductivity of material
devices for measuring spot temperature in a small
i,
volume or surface temperature by applying the hot
junctions zone to the body surface. Z = $1,2
Another kind of application concerns the measure- x/kiP1 + x/'k2P2
ment of radiation energy, which can be attained, for
is the figure of merit of the couple l, 2
instance, by an array of series connected thermoele-
T1, TOare the absolute temperatures respectively of hot
ments on a plane surface, with hot junctions covered
and cold junctions of thermocouples,
by a n absorber with respect to the wavelengths of
R~. is the external load connected to the battery,
interest, and cold junctions shielded against radiation
R~ is the internal resistance of the battery,
and thermally connected with the heat sink.
Ai (i = 1,2) is the overall cross section of material
Since all the above applications require direct con-
i,
version of thermal into electrical energy, a general
Kt is the overall thermal conductance of the thermo-
requirement for thin film materal is a high value of
elements,
figure of merit Z. In particular for thermometric ap-
Ko is the joint thermal conductance of the insulating
plications, it is also required that the Seebeck coeffi-
system and of the thermoelements supporting system,
cient S be high.
the efficiency of conversion is a function of the ratios
For several years researchers have been working
R ~ R i and AlIA 2 and reaches the maximum value
towards the realization of a thin film conversion
device [5-7]. The results however were not, until now,
AT M - 1
encouraging, owing to the difficulty of obtaining thin
,//max T 1 M -.1- To/T 1 (1)
films of good thermoelectric properties and high sta-
bility with time, in the desired configuration. when
Furthermore, the requirements which must be met
by the supporting substrate (low electrical and ther- R L _ X/1 + Z T = M , (2)
mal conductivity, good mechanical properties, dimen- Ri
sional and chemical stability at the temperatures A1 / ~10"1 (3)
reached during the film deposition) limit the choice A2 ~/k2 a2'
to the field of polyimide resins. With these materials,
however, a substrate thermal conductance lower than where:
the thermoelement conductance cannot in practice be AT = T1 - To
attained, and, as a consequence, high efficiency of the
conversion device is obtained only on the condition T TI+To
that an insulating system with very low thermal con- 2
ductance is available.
This paper describes a thin film thermoelectric From the above expression for efficiency it is poss-
module to be used with a Plutonium-238 heat source ible to derive an approximate relation which is linear
for the power supply of cardiac pacemakers. with respect to the temperature.
High conversion efficiency has been achieved by Since in the field of interest T < 330°K always, it
setting up a proper technique leading to high-figure- happens that, even for the highest attainable value
 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE 57

of Z(~ 3"10-3°K-1), Z T < 1 and one can consider and the electrical power is given by:

Zt W = ~S2aAT2 (2 + 2)A/l, (12)

M~I+-- (4)
2 wherethemeanvaluesa = (oh + trz)/2,k = (kl + k2)/2
# ~ aZAT, (5) are considered for the materials of thermocouples, of
overall area A and length I.
where From this simplified analysis the following conclu,
0.25 sions can be drawn:
1 + (ZTI/2) (1) The most important parameter for the charac-
Now, since: terization of a thin film thermoelectric material in
view of this kind of application can be considered
AT
---~1, the product S2cr rather than the figure of merit Z.
That is, among materials having similar Z values,
any heat transfer within the battery can be considered those with a high value of S2tr are preferable.
as linearly related to temperature difference, even in (2) It is easy to verify that, even with the best
the case of thermal radiation, so that the following thermoelectric and substrate materials presently avail-
relations hold: able, the condition (9) cannot be satisfied within the
dimensional limits imposed by the considered appli-
O = (Ko + Kt) A T (6) cation.
W = PATctZ (1 + KoAT), (7) (3) From relation (11) it appears that the approach
to optimum conditions requires:
and from the condition of maximum power output:
(a) to realize an insulating system with the lowest
8W attainable value of thermal conductance provided the
- 0, (8)
c~(AT) hot junction temperature:
one finds:
Q
Ko = Kt. (9) Th = Tc + K, + Kt(1 + 2) ' (13)

Optimum conditions are therefore fulfilled when the
heat flow from the source is equally distributed
between thermoelements and insulating-supporting
materials. In this case the electrical power output is
directly proportional to the figure of merit of the
couple of materials 1 and 2.
In a thin film conversion device further remarks
can be made. As a matter of fact, in this case the
presence of a substrate onto which the film must be
deposited determines a dependence between Ko and
Kt due to the fixed ratio 2 between the thermal con-
ductances of the substrate and the films:
2 = ks ts (10)
?(kit1 + k2t2i"
where:
ks is the thermal conductivity of the substrate;
t s is the thickness of the substrate;
t i (i = 1,2) is the thickness of thin film of material
i;
3' is the ratio between the deposition area of the
thermoelements and the substrate surface.
The following relation must hold for the thermal con-
ductance Ki,s of the insulating system:
k~ts ]
(11)
Kin~ <~ K, 1 3)(kit I + kzt2 ) ,
® Du Pont: De Nemour trade name.
is less than a critical value of damage for thermoelec-
tric material;
(b) to set up a deposition apparatus which allows
to get a thickness ti of thin films such that:
ks
ti >~ ts ~ . (14)
3. MODULE
For the realization of the thermoelectric module
a particular evaporation technique (10) has been set
up, the fundamentals of which will be discussed in
a following section.
As a substrate we chose a film of Kapton® poly-
mide resin, 12.5 #m thick. This kind of resin is avail-
able in foils of excellent mechanical properties and
tolerates exposure up to 250°C occurring in the eva-
poration and annealing process without dimensional
alterations. The thermal conductivity is limited to
5.5 × 10 -3 W/cm °C which is the lowest available
for this kind of material.
A thermoelectric module consists of 3 strips, 35 mm
wide and 1050 mm long, connected in series by means
of electrical and mechanical bonds.
Each strip holds 518 thermocouple legs series con-
nected by gold bridges which are also deposited by
vacuum evaporation.
The materials of thermocouples are alloys of Bi--
Te-Se-Sb compounds with doping agents, which
exhibit semiconductor behaviour. Their character-
istics in thin film form are listed in Table 1.
58 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE

Table 1. Thermoelectric characteristics of thin film thermo- Table 2. Physical characteristics of thin film thermoelectric
couples in the direct conversion module module

p type n type Size: diameter (mm) 10.5

total height (mm) 36
Electrical conductivity 560 1100 Weight (grams) 7
(f~- 1cm- 1) Number of thermocouples 777
Seebeck coefficient 212 148 Total Seebeck coefficient (V/°C) 0.280
(/~V/°K) Total thermal conductance
Thickness 4.00 2.85 along the axis (W/°C) 1.74- 10-3
(#m)

Moreover, the thermoelectric properties of de-

After thermocouples and connections are deposited, posited thin films depend heavily on the low content
a protective layer of silicon monoxide is also vacuum of doping agents whose vapour pressure may be
evaporated onto the total surface of the strip, with largely different from that of the base elements.
the aim of protecting the semiconductors from alter- As a consequence of condition (14) we chose as
ations by evaporation of components or migration our goal to obtain films of thickness not less than
of foreign elements, and preventing accidental electri- 3 #m, deposited onto a substrate of 1 m length. Such
cal contacts between bridges belonging to contiguous requirements imply prolonged duration of the pro-
coils during rolling up operation. cess, with difficulty to keep physical conditions under
After winding, the residual spacing between coils control.
is filled by epoxy resin cast under vacuum in order The materials taken into consideration were the fol-
to obtain a compact mechanically strong hollow lowing:
cylinder of 10.5 mm outer dia., 3 mm inner dia.
End terminals are connected to the thermoelement p type: p1 (Bi2Te3)-(Sb2Te3) q- X + Z
series on the internal and external edges of the n type: n1 (Bi2Te3)s .(Bi2Se3) + Y + Z
cylinder by means of a metal ring and cap respect- n2 Bi2Te3+ Z
ively. n3 Bi2Te3.4+ Z
Figure 2 shows the thin film module, the main n4 (Bi2Te3)o.ss.(Sb2Te3)o.15 + Y + Z,
characteristics of which are listed in Table 2.

4. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

The vacuum evaporation of semiconductor alloys

of Bi-Te-Se-Sb compounds involves complex techno-
logical problems, since the large differences between
vapour pressures of components do not allow to get
thin films with controlled composition by direct eva-
poration of alloys.

Fig. 3. Apparatus for the deposition of thin film thermo-

couples in the direct conversion module. A: rotating wheel;
B: flexible mask superimposed to the Kapton® substrate;
C: tantalum crucible; D: particle feeder; E: radiation
Fig. 2. The thin film thermoelectric module with end heater; F: water-cooled fragment collector; G: quartz crys-
terminals. tal evaporation monitor.
 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE 59

I I I III
1000 Bi 2-1.355 Sbl.355 Te3÷o.7 HEATING • • II

Tc,1090 °C Ts =170 °C COOLING O A El

500

t,211 pm
0 t I I I I I I
2.0 2.2 2A 2.6 2.8 3,0 3.2
L [10-' OK"]
T
Fig. 4. Variation of electrical conductivity with repeated annealing cycles in a thin film of p-1 type
alloy.

with: in an oven at 800°C and was mounted on an bscillat-

ing support in order to obtain a homogeneous molten
IPb {CuBr {~
mass despite viscosity.
X Bi Y CHI 3 Z
After quenching, the resulting polycrystalline
[ Cd AgBr
material is crushed into a mortar with rotating steel
The substances X, Y, Z have doping functions. Their blades and the grains selected by sieving according
amount was a variable to be optimized in the course to their size.
of the research and in any case was less than 3~o The basic evaporation technique we used is that
of the base material. known as "flash evaporation", in which grains of
The base materials are obtained by direct synthesis material supplied by a reservoir are dropped into a
of components, including doping elements, inside a crucible whose temperature allows quick evaporation
quartz ampoule, which was evacuated to 10 -5 Torr of all components of one grain before the following
and sealed. The ampoule was maintained for ca. 4 h arrives.

~_~ zoo
c/)

100

I II
HEATING • &
Bi 2-1.35, Sbl.3s5 Te 3+o.~ COOLING O A
Tc,,1090°C Ts,,170°C t,2.11 lum
I I I I
200 300 400 500
T K]
Fig. 5. Variation of Seebeck coefficient with repeated annealing cycles in a thin film of p-1 type
alloy.

E.C. 16 1/2 E
60 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE

The main role in this respect is played by the tem-

peratures of crucible and substrate.
I II For the optimization of the former, one has to take
HEATING • •
into account two opposite requirements: it is necess-
COOLING O
ary that the crucible temperature is high enough to
1000 allow the quick evaporation of all components, but
on the other hand one must avoid that fragments
of the grains are projected around as a consequence
of microexplosions at the contact with the crucible
surface. Should this happen, in fact, a selective emis-
sion of the most volatile components from the frag-
ments during flight would result, with an indeter-
minate effect on the film composition.
Bi 2 Te3_o. s Seo. 5
The substrate temperature determines the growth
t , 0 . 3 5 pm Tc.1300oC Ts,1250C
pattern of. the film and the selective reflection of
I I I I I I I atoms from its surface. It follows that even the geo-
2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 metric and thermal configuration of the substrate en-
![ld'
T
vironment plays an essential role.
The ideal situation should be represented by each
Fig. 6. Variation of electrical conductivity with repeated substrate point seeing only surfaces of the same com-
annealing cycles in a thin film of n-I type alloy. position and temperature of the as-deposited film
itself, except obviously the crucible surface, so that
the inter-exchanges of atoms due to the secondary
It is important that the size of the grains fed to emission behave according to dynamic equilibria.
the crucible is constant during the evaporation pro- In practice, these conditions are approached with
cess, although the size itself is not critical. satisfactory results by the evaporation apparatus
Thermoelectric properties of thin films are a func- shown in Fig. 3. The substrate is fixed to the inner
tion of the charge carrier number and their mobility. surface of a metallic wheel with horizontal axis, which
Both these quantities ineturn depend on the elemental rotates at approx. 6 r.p.m, during the process. An eva-
composition of the film and on its microstructure. poration mask is superimposed according to the
It has been found that, by varying evaporation par- desired pattern. The wheel temperature is kept con-
ameters, one can tailor these variables to the desired stant by a shielded radiation heater which surrounds
characteristics, with satisfactory reproducibility of it over a 180° arc and is controlled by a thermocouple
results. whose signal is picked up by sliding contacts.

Bi 2 Te3_o, 5 S e o . 5 I 14
HEATING • •
Tc.1300°C Ts.125 °C
COOLING O Z~
t . 0 . 3 5 ~Jm

-200

:> - lO0

I t I
200 300 400 500

Fig. 7. Variation of Seebeck coefficient with repeated annealing cycles in a thin film of n 1 type
alloy.
 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA ANt) BOSIO: FILM MODULE 61

The microstructure of the film obtained is per-

manently stable at room temperature, but when sub-
jected to annealing cycles can evolve toward a higher
degree of crystallization and orientation.
Thermoelectric properties can be improved to a
1000
~ O * - - , q f > - O ~ O higher or lower extent, according to the considered
alloy, by suitable choice of temperature-time charac-
teristic of annealing.
It has also been found that an important effect of
r----*
T
E
the annealing process is the improvement of film
~J uniformity despite imperfect evaporation control.
T Bi 2 Te 3.13 I I!
C~ 500 Figures 4-10 show the variation of electrical con-
HEATING • A

Tc .1000 °C Ts • 55 °C ductivity and Seebeck coefficient with temperature

during repeated cycles of annealing for some thin film
COOLING O ZI
t ,0.45 pm specimens obtained by the evaporation of the alloys
listed above. In the graphs the temperatures T~ and
i I I J L 1 T~ respectively of the crucible and the substrate in
2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2,8 3,0 the specific run are reported. The thickness of the
,_ specimen t has been measured by X-ray absorption
T
of a collimated beam of Kc< radiation of copper.
An annealing cycle is performed in c a . 3 h with con-
Fig. 8. Variation of electrical conductivity with repeated
annealing cyles in a thin film of n-2 type alloy. stant heat supply to the oven and spontaneous cool-
ing. An argon atmosphere is maintained in the oven.
The crucible is placed inside the cylinder and con- From the graphs of Figs. 4-10 the following con-
sists of a tantalum case surrounded by a thermal siderations can be drawn. Any annealing cycle in-
shield, positioned so that the grains impact on a wall, volves an irreversible structural change, the amount
thus giving a minimum probability for a fragment of which is related to the maximum temperature of
to be projected upwards. the cycle itself. Any following cycle below this tem-
For each of the basic compositions listed before perature results therefore in a reversible change of
it is possible to determine the set of temperatures characteristics. Other cycles with higher top tempera-
which will give the best result. Optimum temperatures tures correspond to additional structural variations
lie in the range of 1000-1500°C for the crucible and until a final configuration is attained. This is not true
60-180°C for the substrate. for n-3 type alloy, which is insensitive to annealing.

Bi 2 Te 3,13

Tc,1000 °C Ts,55°C
%
(n

- 200

-100

t - 0,45 pm
J HEATING •
I
•
II

COOLING 0 ZI

o i J i , I i i i
200 300 ,oo ,oo
r [OK]
Fig. 9. Variation of Seebeck coefficient with repeated annealing cycles in a thin film of n-2 type
alloy.
 62 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE

It is well known that in a semiconductor with fixed

1000 8i2 Tea.4 HEATING •
Tc . 1300 °C Ts=1250C COOLING O base composition, when the charge carrier number
t .2.20pm and/or their mobility change owing to doping and
structural variation, the corresponding values of elec-
trical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient are related
AA AA according to a typically shaped curve.
uE
7 500
Figures 14 and 15 show the correlations between
c experimental measurements on these quantities
referred to specimens of the same base alloy, but with
various percentages of doping in the bulk material
and different evaporation parameters. The experimen-
tal points refer to measurements taken after complete
I I I I I f
~.0 2.2 2A 2,6 2.8 3.0
annealing. The typical trend is obtained, with an in-
z [lO-~-'] itial sudden raise corresponding to intrinsic behaviour
T and a subsequent slow drop when doping conduction
is predominant.
Fig. 10. Plot of electrical conductivity versus the reciprocal
of temperature for a thin film of n-3 type alloy, showing The curve is useful for the search of optimum dop-
its insensitivity to annealing. ing and evaporation conditions, by comparing exper-
imental trends of after annealing characteristics and
The result of this process is in general an excellent theoretical curves with constant S2a.
improvement of thermoelectric characteristics, up to
a factor of 10 as in the case of Figs. 4 and 5.
5. BATTERY
The structural changes related to thermal annealing
are evidenced by the X-ray diffraction spectra. Figures The thermoelectric conversion battery with thin
11-13 show the spectra corresponding to the speci- film module utilizes as heat source a sealed capsule
mens of Figs. 4, 5 and 8-10 respectively, taken before from CEA, type Pu 38 ST-B, in which 216rag of
and after annealing. The Bragg-Brentano apparatus Pu-238 are enclosed in a double wall of tantalum and
has been used, with Kc( radiation of copper. platinum-iridium.

Bi2-1,~sSb~55Tes+o~
1,0.t0
TYPE

AFTER ANNEALING
0.1.5

0,2.13

01,8 o.1.11 1JD.13 0230 1.1.t0

0.0,8

I I ' ' i , [ r i ~ i I
lO 20 .30 40
9o

BEFORE ANNEALING
L.
._ 1~).I0

0.1.5 I

' I
10
'
A i i , I
20
' i l
--

' I
30
,~ , I , I
40
'

e*

Fig. 11. X-ray diffraction spectra for a thin film of p-1 type alloy taken before and after annealing
cycles.
 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE 63

Bi 2 Te 3,13
TYPE n

AFTER ANNEALING

1.0.10
5 1.0,16
0.t`5 tl 1115
0123 1~2511E6

' ' I ' ~ I ' ' i I I ' ' ' I '

10 20 30 40 8o

BEFORE ANNEALING

0.0.6

1.0.10 0.0.15 0.1.20 1.1.26

10.1.881.1.15 ~ _ _ 0.1,2.3 1.125
! ! i | • , ' I . . . . I 7 i T----;
10 20 30 40
B*
Fig. 12. X-ray diffraction spectra for a thin film of n-2 type alloy taken before and after annealing
cycles.

Bi2Te S,4
0.1,5
TYPE n

AFTER ANNEALING

1.O.lO

OJL'IO 1.t.15 12.5

I I . . . . I , 4, , I
10 20 30 40
eo

0.1,5
BEFORE ANNEALING
1.1.0

1~1o

1.1.15

lO 2o SO 40
eo

Fig. 13. X-ray diffraction spectra for a thin film of n-3 type alloy taken before and after annealing
cycles.
64 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA AND BOSIO: FILM MODULE

, , F:o w]

\r ~ 0~11~'
~ Bi"1"355 S b " s s 5 Te 3 ÷ °,7

200 tJ -\~,\

4 ?x\x

100 - \ x
\
%

10
i J ~ ~llllll-
L
100
i i ~llllll
1000
I I IIIIIII
10"000
I I I illil

0~* [l~l.-lcm-1J
Fig. 14. Plot of Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity for thin films of p-1 type alloy after
annealing.

Thermal power at beginning of life is 122 mW, cor- system with thermal shields with an overall thermal
responding to an c~ activity of 3.75 Ci. conductance of 1.38 mW/°C. Since thermal conduc-
The capsule is designed to meet the ENEA require- tance of module-substrate system is 1.74 mW/°C, the
ments for specific biomedical applications. resulting temperature difference between hot and cold
The thermal insulation consists of an in-vacuum junctions is 38.5°C.

s' [,o-'w I
, ~ ' , \ / t ..... ..i

-200 ',,¢,,,,,%,'
, \

I- ", \ll',~\',
I \ ". " ~ ' "
I-==.I

" ~ -100
i ', %. ,,,~,%. "~,,"
%%

1 I i lillli [ I I IIIIII | i I Illlll I I I II1|1

10 100 1000 10"000

[,,'," cm-']
Fig. 15. Plot of Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity for thin films of n-2 type alloy after
annealing.
 CHINAGLIA, VALLANA ANt) BOSIO: FILM MODULE 65

Table 3. Main characteristics of SORIN thin film Pu-238 REFERENCES

battery
[1] M. Alais, R. Berger, R. Boucher, J. D. Hixson, P.
Plutonium source: activity (Ci) 3.75 Laurens and A. Piwnica, Nucl. News, 42 Dec. 1970.
thermal power (mW) 122 [2] Joel D. Hixson, Isotopes Rad. Techn. 9, 215 (1971).
Maximum power output (/~W) 130 [3] A.W. Penn, M. H. Brown, J. Hyatt and M. J. Poole,
Open circuit voltage (V) 11 Nucl. Techn. 13, 89 (1972).
Internal resistance (Kf~) 180 [4] W. Greatbatch and T. S. Bustard, iEEE Trans. on
Size: diameter (mm) 15.5 Biomed. Engng, 2,0, 332 (1973).
height (mm) 55 [51 K. G. Gunther, Z. Natu(forsch.q. 13a, 1081 (1958).
Weight (g) 50 [6] A. Goswami and S. S. Koli, Indian J. Pure Appl.
?, + neutron dose at 20cm (m rem/h) 0.015 Phys. 7, 166 (1969).
[7] Th. Renner, G. Rittmayer, D. Falkenberg, G. Grub-
muller and D. Waligora, Siemens Forsch. und
The characteristics of the battery are listed in Table Entwickl. Ber. Bd. 1,355 (1972).
3. [8] A. F. loffe, Semiconductor thermoelements and
Figure 16 shows the complete battery. thermoelectric cooling, Infosearch, London (1957).
[9] I. B. Cadoff and E. Miller, Thermoelectric materials
and devices. Reinhold, NY. (1960).
[10] Patent Italy n. 67523-A/73 (B. Chinaglia, F. Vallana),
1973.

Fig. 16. The thin film module plutonium-238 battery

manufactured by SORIN for the power supply in cardiac
pacemakers.