Preliminary design of betavoltaic battery using Co-60 and Pm-147 with GaAs substrate

A. Waris, Y. Kusumawati, A. S. Alfarobi, I. K. Aji, and K. Basar

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1719, 030053 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4943748

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4943748
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 Preliminary Design of Betavoltaic Battery using Co-60 and
Pm-147 with GaAs Substrate
A. Waris1,*, Y. Kusumawati2, A. S. Alfarobi2, I. K. Aji2, and K. Basar1
1
Nuclear Physics & Biophysics Research Division, Department of Physics,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi Bandung,
Jl. Ganesa 10 Bandung 40132, INDONESIA
2
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences,
Institut Teknologi Bandung,
Jl. Ganesa 10 Bandung 40132, INDONESIA

*E-mail: awaris@fi.itb.ac.id

Abstract. Battery is very important for the present daily life, especially for portable devices. The longer utilization time
the better performance of battery. Betavoltaic battery is a device that converts energy from beta decays of radioactive
nuclide into electric current. One of merits of the later battery is the life time that can be more than ten years without
recharging. To develop the betavoltaic battery for energy source of portable devices we have performed a preliminary
simulation design of betavoltaic battery using Pm-147 and Co-60 a beta emitter radionuclides with n-GaAs
substrate.From the results we found that the combination of Pm-147 with n-GaAs substrate results in 9.0% of efficiency
and higher output current compared to references.

Keywords: betavoltaic, battery, Cobalt-60, Promethium-147, GaAs, semiconductor

PACS: 23, 28, 81, 84

INTRODUCTION
Betavoltaic battery is a device which utilizes radionuclide material that emits beta particles or beta rays. These
beta rays then are converted into electric current to become energy source. Nuclear battery is very interesting and
promising energy sources since it can be used for very long period (even for many years) without recharging. The
utilization time mostly depends only on the half-lived of the beta ray emitter that we used.
Qiao Da Yong et. al., has reported a simulation and experimental designs of betavoltaic battery using Ni-63as
beta emitter and n-type of semiconductor 4H SiC (silicon carbide) Schottky barrier as a substrate [1-3]. Figure 1
shows the cut view of the betavoltaic battery that has been designed by Qiao Da Yong et. al. [1].
In this preliminary study, we have employed Co-60 and Pm-147 as sources of beta rays instead of Ni-63 and
GaAs as a substrate of betavoltaic battery instead of 4H SiC.
The objective of study is to design betavoltaic battery for portable devices.

The 4th International Conference on Theoretical and Applied Physics (ICTAP) 2014
AIP Conf. Proc. 1719, 030053-1–030053-5; doi: 10.1063/1.4943748
© 2016 AIP Publishing LLC 978-0-7354-1366-5/$30.00

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 FIGURE 1. Cross-section of the betavoltaic battery with the Ni-63 beta emitter and 4H-SiC semiconductor as the substrate [1]

METHODOLOGY
Promethium-147 is selected as the beta emitter due to its high output power [4], while Cobalt-60 has large
activity and has not used as beta rays source in betavoltaic battery [5].
Table 1 presents the physics parameters of the three beta emitters (Ni-63, Co-60, and Pm-147) as for comparison.

TABLE 1. Physics properties of three beta emitters

Radioisotope Pm-147 Co-60 Ni-63

Activity [C] (mCi/mg) 897 1100 11.7
Eavg (keV) 62 96 17.1
Emax (MeV) 0.23 0.318 66.7
Atomic number (Z) 61 27 28
Half-life (year) 2.6 5.3 100.1
Mass thickness [tm] (mg/cm2) 0.43 0.43 0.43

GaAs semiconductor has also been selected due to several advantages compared to silicon, among others: the
higher electron mobility, and lower power dissipation [6].
Table 2 provides the comparison of properties of 4H-SiC and GaAs semiconductor as the substrate of the
betavoltaic battery [7-10].
The resistance of semiconductor depends on the type of semiconductor itself, and can be determined based on
TLM (Transmission Line Method) method. Specific contact resistance of Au/n-GaAs that given in Table 2 is based
on experimental results from references [11-14].
Additional constants which have been employed in this computational study are given in Table 3 below [11-13].
Due to re-absorption process of radiation energy by the corresponding radioactive source, the apparent activity value
becomes lower than the real activity. Therefore, in this study only the apparent activity value has been taken into
account. The apparent activity depends on the mass thickness, as given in the following Equation (1) [2].

(1)

Mass attenuation coefficient can be calculated from Equation (2) below [2].

(2)

Base on the apparent activity value then the power that produced by radioactive sources can be calculated from the
following Equation (3) [2].

(3)

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 TABLE 2. Physics properties comparison of 4H-SiC and GaAs semiconductor

Semiconductor GaAs 4H-SiC

Epair (eV) 4.184 7.78
Effective Mass [m*] 6.1 × 10-32 3.8 × 10-31
Affinity of electron [χ] 4.07 4.00
Work function of Schottky metal [φM] (eV) 5.15 5,15
17
Effective density at conduction band [NC] (cm-3) 4.48 × 10 1.69 × 1019
Epilayer doping concentration [ND] (cm-3) 2.5 × 1015 5.0 × 1018
Dielectric constant [εs] (eV) 1.12 × 10-12 8.58 × 10-13
Richardson constant [A*] 8.16 146
-6
minority carrier diffusion length [Lp] (m) 1 × 10 1 × 10-6
Specific contact resistance [Rc] (Ω cm2) 4 × 10-6 – 3 × 10-5 6.9 × 10-5

TABLE 3. Additional constants

Constant Value
Temperature (K) 300
Thermal voltage [Vt] (V) 0,026
Decay mode coefficient [z] 1
Metal penetration coefficient [λ] 0,000456
Surface area of battery (cm2) 0,0314

The work function (barrier height) of betavoltaic battery can be calculated as follows [3].

(4)

The built-in potential of semiconductor can be determined using Equation (5) below [3].

(5)

(6)

Short circuit current density in the depletion region of semiconductor (JSC) can be calculated using Equation (7) [3].

(7)

Where JD is the current density in depletion region and JN is the current density in substrate region. The α1 and α2 are
the contribution factor from the depletion region and the epilayer region.
The open circuit voltage of this betavoltaic battery can be determined from the Richardson formula [1].

(8)

(9)

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 The short circuit current of Schottky barrier in semiconductor can be calculated from the following equation.

, (10)

where A is area.
If we define the FF (Fill Factor) as in Equation (11) below [3],

(11)

The efficiency of the betavoltaic battery then can be formulated as the following Equation (12) [3].

(12)

The saturated voltage (Vp) and the saturated current density (Jp) can be extracted from the following two equation
[15]

(13)

(14)

where J1 is the current density for illumination condition and J 2 is the current density for non-illumination
condition.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 4 presents the calculation results of both Pm-147 and Co-60 radioactive sources betavoltaic batteries with GaAs
substrate.

TABLE 4. Calculation results of betavoltaic battery.

Radioisotope Pm-147 Co-60 Ni-63

Apparent activity [Φ] (mCi/cm2) 374,40 464,21 2,24
Power [Psource] (nW/cm2) 137421,7 263821,4 429,0
Open circuit voltage[Voc] (V) 1,12 1,13 0,26
Reverse saturation current density [J0]
1,79 × 10-14 1,76 × 10-14 1,71 × 10-15
(A/cm2)
Short circuit current density [Jsc] (nA/cm2) 14766 18419 13,82
Short circuit current [Isc] (nA) 463 578 0,43
Saturated current density [Jp] (nA/cm2) 14766 18419 10,76
Saturated Voltage [Vp] (V) 0,875 0,825 0,190
Fill factor [FF] 0,83 0,73 0,57
Efficiency [η] (%) 9,40 5,76 0,50

Smartphone needs the current capacity of 750-2400 mA hour. In this preliminary study, the designed betavoltaic
battery provides the current capacity of order 10-9 per second or of order 10-6 per hour. This means that we need to
multiply the current capacity of the battery up to thousand times. The later fact can be realized by increasing the size
of the batavoltaic battery.

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 CONCLUSION
Preliminary design study of the betavoltaic batteries for portable devices have been performed by employed Co-
60 and Pm-147 as sources of beta rays instead of Ni-63 and GaAs as a substrate of betavoltaic battery instead of 4H
SiC. The results show that battery can produce the current capacity of order 10-9 per second or of order 10-6 per hour.
This means that for smart phone application, the size of the betavoltaic battery should be increased to about
thousand times.

REFERENCES
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