Designing and Fabricating a Multiple-Decade Battery

There is a great need for energy sources that can power unattended sensors for more than a decade. Unattended sensors can be located in harsh and remote locations that are often dangerous for personnel maintenance and power source replacement. The power source must last the lifetime of the sensor. Unlike chemical batteries, the higher energy densities of radioisotopes allow the sensors to operate for infrastructure lifetimes (~150 years). Isotope batteries (iBATs) have the potential to become reliable, robust, and maintenance-free power sources for remote, long-term, low-power sensors. iBATs are different from chemical batteries because they are self-contained energy sources using radioisotope decay.