[X] My Assistant

[hendric]

I don't see a "future technologies" forum, so I guess this is probably the next best place for this.

Noticed an interesting article in IEEE Spectrum about using radioactive radiation instead of solar radiation for power generation in "solar" cells. Interesting article... Had me curious about how much power said cells could generate in space, perhaps near the Sun or Jupiter.

Here is the Spectrum article

http://spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4887

After much searching, here is the USPTO patent application

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser...ancis+AND+Tsang

[hendric]

Helvick,
Oh, I agree, but it does offer some intriguing possibilities. The efficiencies aren't there yet, 1% is what they quote, but solar cells started really inefficient as well, and are now in the ~30-40% range. RTG efficiency is only in the 3-7% range, so there isn't an insurmountable hurdle to reach. Plus, there's no reason not to piggyback the two technologies, the cells get first bite, surrounded by the RTG thermocouples.

Also, an RTG can only get so small, but these cells could be made arbitrarily small, or large. Might work well for a penetrator that needs a small long term power source.

As for shielding, I assume the cells themselves would act as shields around the power source. You'd need extra protection to prevent a release during a launch failure.

One nice aspect of the design discussed is that it uses liquid semiconductors, so there is no degradation of the junctions; they are self-healing.

Like you said, it's probably a technology still years away from usefulness, but hey, we can say the same thing about fusion...