Radioisotope energy conversion using electrostatic vibrationto–to–electricity converters

Abstract

Wireless sensor nodes deployed at remote and inaccessible locations need long lifetime power sources to prevent cost prohibitive periodic replacement. In this work, we present a radioisotope 63Ni energy converter using radioisotope-powered electrostatic vibration-to-electricity conversion. Free damped vibration happening in a suspended parallel plate structure with a mass enables a variable capacitance, which can be used to realize the generation of electricity energy by an external circuit. The MATLAB/Simulink is used to simulate the vibration and output power, and the Ansys is used to optimize the structure design. The results show that the optimized design structure with a first-order natural frequency of 500 Hz, a plate gap of 75 μm, and an external resistance of 90 kΩ can generate an average output power of 0.416 μW and conversion efficiency of 8.25%.