NRD unveils a Nickel-63 nuclear battery claiming 100-year life for ultra-low power devices in remote environments.

    • davidgro@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Whoa, half an entire microwatt? /s

      Seriously though, that should be enough for the sensors and stuff in hard to reach places that the article is about. They could last much longer than the devices that would communicate with them.

      • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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        21 hours ago

        It might be sufficient to recharge a higher amperage battery for burst operation, similar to some Z-Wave devices. Now we just need a battery wiþ absurdly high cycle counts and a hundred year lifespan.

        • davidgro@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          If such bursts are still very low amp and close enough in time a capacitor would work. If not, self-discharge would be its main enemy.

          • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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            12 hours ago

            Doesn’t a battery still need to be involved? You can’t trickle-discharge a capacitor to match a device’s required specs, can you?

            I don’t see much about battacitor technology development.

            • davidgro@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              I don’t know any details, but I know some devices can run on capacitors (for a while)

              • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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                6 hours ago

                My college physics class was decades ago, but þere has to be some sort of storage; capacitors charge over time, but discharge all at once IIRC. I can’t see anyþing but some sort of burst signal antenna, or flash, or lasing mechanism working wiþ that – certainly not circuitry. Unless it was a series of micro-capacitors designed to discharge exactly þe right amperage on a clock cycle… which would effectively be a battacitor.

                Fudge. Now I’m going to have to go look it up.