You could use such a phone to heat yourself if you ever get stranded with a non-functioning car in a snow storm. Or use your phone to fry eggs
Your fingertip gives off more heat than a stack of these.
A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
61–70 of 86 posts
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more helpful to think of it as a power generator that produces that level of power. Then you use it or store it. Having an onboard power source coupled with storage is an amazing win. And these power generators (not batteries really) are very small. So, when phone is "off" it pulls some mW from each of the many such power cells onboard to charge battery, then when phone is "on" it works like normal.
No really, no. It's the same to declare that you have a box of matches and burning them it gives you a substantial help to warm up your house in the middle of winter. "which measure less than a coin at 15 x 15 x 5mm" , if you stack a large amount of that component still the power generated is ridicule, in fact they tell us: "Betavolt is planning to boost its tech to produce a 1-watt battery by 2025", aka, 3V 0.33A an…
P.s. More critical thinking is required before reposting this kind of article, those are, anyway, all very similar: computer generated mock, no test, no prototype, no scientific documentation, no peer reviews. Only a before-unknown company that declare a miraculous breaking ground tech. I'm sure that if I declare can produce an anti-matter base battery capable to give power to your phone and also your CAR, the "news" will propagated everywhere, in article identical to technical review.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good thing we have removable batteries in all the phones now /s
It is coming (again) thanks to one of the largest single market on the planet making replacable batteries in portable electronics a requirement by 2027 (in 3 years time) [0]. I find it highly unlikely that there will be double production of devices for the EU market on one hand and the rest of the world on the other (and the biggest producers are not going to be pulling out of the market for obvious reasons). [0] htt…
If only. I suspect they will use the "waterproof" exception as an excuse to continue as before.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#64The idea of this making it into any consumer product is science fiction, and articles like this can be safely ignored. Some back of the envelope math to illustrate why: - The decay energy of Ni-63 is 66 keV, but since the energy is split with an irrecoverable neutrino, the average recoverable energy per decay is more like 17 keV. - The typical power consumption of an iPhone is about 10 watts, give or take. - Converti…
The fact is that beta batteries have been around since the 1960's, and for the reasons you've described they're not really useful for commercialization. I'd add that even if they were somehow absolutely foolproof, you'd still need strict regulatory oversight of disposal/recycling.
The cost would be immense, the benefits would be slim at best.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not saying they're unsafe (I don't know that, but I do trust my national agency if they certify it). I'm saying convincing people who need a peacemaker to not die about a magic device that keep their heart beating is much easier than convincing any random person to have a radioactive phone.
Ni-63 is a pure low energy beta emitter - what that means is your skin is enough to block it penetrating if it were outside the phone. While used as intended it would be safe but it’s a horrible idea for consumer electronics for disposal issues. Overall it sounds like a terrible idea though due to what happens when the phone reaches end of life or is smashed. Phone can’t be shredded and materials reclaimed without ma…
Wrt to the shredding, isn't this already the case? You can't exactly shred a lipo or li-ion battery and not expect a battery fire.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#66How to tell the author is completely clueless wrt nuclear physics: What the company is apparently saying: "To create the radioactive battery, Betavolt's scientist used nickel-63, which is a radiactive element, as the energy source... " The author describing this in his own words: "The compact battery uses 63 nuclear isotopes to generate..." "
There's another news article by a different author that makes the same bizarre mistake: - "Beijing-based Betavolt said its nuclear battery is the first in the world to realise the miniaturisation of atomic energy, placing 63 nuclear isotopes into a module smaller than a coin." https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nuclear-battery-betavolt-... Are they both copying this text from some other source?
I'm guessing this is due to poor translation combined with lack on knowledge on the reporter's side resulting in the error not being caught.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#67[dead]
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#68100 microwatts - I can't imagine a phone idles on that. About 36 microamps at 3.6 volts. > less than a coin at 15 x 15 x 5mm Slightly smaller than a stack of four US dimes.
A modern smartphone, no, not currently. Feature phones maybe, if made specifically with low-power parts.
Personally I'm interested in putting this in a watchy [0], that can get around on tens of microwatts average consumption because of deep sleep states and an e-paper screen.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#69These are woefully underpowered for consumer electronics and always will be - only really useful for maintaining volatile memory. This idea has actually been debunked more than once.
Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
No really, no. It's the same to declare that you have a box of matches and burning them it gives you a substantial help to warm up your house in the middle of winter. "which measure less than a coin at 15 x 15 x 5mm" , if you stack a large amount of that component still the power generated is ridicule, in fact they tell us: "Betavolt is planning to boost its tech to produce a 1-watt battery by 2025", aka, 3V 0.33A an…
P.s. More critical thinking is required before reposting this kind of article, those are, anyway, all very similar: computer generated mock, no test, no prototype, no scientific documentation, no peer reviews. Only a before-unknown company that declare a miraculous breaking ground tech. I'm sure that if I declare can produce an anti-matter base battery capable to give power to your phone and also your CAR, the "news"…
It's fair to be skeptical of the article, and also fair to simultaneously look at the wattage output by a single cell and to do some math to determine it's possible to generate power.
It is maybe too bulky. It is maybe too lower power. But my comment was not incorrect, just as your skepticism is not incorrect.