The nuclear power battery is made by the Chinese company Betavolt. The company claims that the lifespan of this battery will be 50 years. The company is planning to bring this nuclear battery called Betavolt BV 100 to the market soon. It uses nickel-63 isotope and diamond semiconductor material.
Betavolt says it aims to make these nuclear batteries suitable for use in aerospace, AI devices, medical, MEMS systems, AI sensors, small drones and robots. Their ultimate goal is this battery-powered smartphone. Such smartphones never need to be charged. After purchasing an electronics product, you can be assured of a charge for 50 years. However, production of the BV 100 is now in the pilot stage. Besides, this battery is not able to provide much charge. This 15x15x5 mm 3 volt battery provides only 100 microwatts of electricity. Multiple BV 100 batteries can be used together in series or parallel depending on device requirements.
Betavolt said it plans to bring a 1-watt version of its nuclear battery to market in 2025.
Betavolt touts two unique features of the new BV 100 battery. First, these miniaturized nuclear batteries can be safely used without any maintenance for up to 50 years. Second, it is the first in the world to use large-scale diamond semiconductor materials. The company is now using their fourth generation diamond semiconductor material. Betavolt said in a press release about the development and production plans for the BV 100 battery that the cells of the BV 100 are quite different from the nuclear batteries made by the United States and the then Soviet Union (Russia) in the 1960s. Earlier nuclear batteries were bulky, dangerous, hot and expensive. For example, some earlier technology nuclear batteries used plutonium as a source of radioactive energy. From that point of view, Betavolt's BV 100 battery is very safe. If it is poked with something hard or even shot, the radiation will not come out. Betavolt batteries use nickel-63 isotope as the energy source. It is stabilized by radioactive decay into copper. Due to the use of diamond semiconductor material, this battery can be operated in the temperature environment of minus 60 to 120 degrees Celsius. The Chinese company claims that this technology is more advanced than the technology of Europe and America.
In the BV 100 battery, a 2 micron thick sheet of nickel-63 is sandwiched between two diamond semiconductor converters. It is based on BetaVolt's 'unique single-crystal diamond semiconductor' technology. This semiconductor is only 10 microns thick.
However, the next version of BV 100 is said to be 1 watt, but it may not be enough for powerful devices in terms of power supply. That's why BetaVolt is looking into isotopes like strontium-90, promethium-147 and deuterium for high-power devices. Despite their high energy levels, they can have a lifespan of up to 230 years.
