Recent developments in materials technology now make it possible to fabricate nonthermal thin‐film radioisotopic energy converters (REC) with a specific power of 24 W/kg and a 10 year working life at 5 to 10 watts. This creates applications never before possible, such as placing the power supply directly on integrated circuit chips. The efficiency of the REC is about 25% which is two to three times greater than the 6 to 8% capabilities of current thermoelectric systems. Radioisotopic energy converters have the potential to meet many future space power requirements for a wide variety of applications with less mass, better efficiency, and less total area than other power conversion options. These benefits result in significant dollar savings over the projected mission lifetime.
Solid state radioisotopic energy converter for space nuclear power
Proceedings of the tenth symposium on space nuclear power and propulsion ; 1993 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 271 , 1 ; 325-331
1993-01-10
7 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Solid State Radioisotopic Energy Converter for Space Nuclear Power
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