Nuclear microbatteries for micro and nano Devices

Radioisotopes have many applications. Among the various technologies for micro power generation being investigated, nuclear microbatteries that convert the kinetic energy of charged particles emitted from the radioisotopes into electricity are very attractive for many applications. In this paper, the previous work on developing nuclear microbatteries for micro and nano devices, including two types of microbatteries, betavoltaic microbatteries and direct charge collector batteries, has been reviewed, and new progress for energy conversion, betavoltaic microbatteries using Pm-147 and porous silicon, have been proposed and developed as well.