Of course, from the phone maker standpoint this would put a crimp in the yearly upgrade cycle… Which would make a small additional dose rate worth it, perhaps, just to see them trying to rationalize it.
I don’t see 28k year lifetimes, though. Apart from the half-life issue, most devices like this ultimately rely on a semiconductor junction between materials with different dopings to convert something – heat, ionization, light – to an electrical potential. Over time the dopants will diffuse across the boundary layer and the device will fail. This same phenomenon is why solar cells, for instance, have a limited lifespan.
There has been talk about the Radioactive Diamond Batteries on some of the trade magazine sites for a while, and I’ve leaned toward the approach of “show me a working prototype and some evidence” about the story. I obviously don’t expect them to show me evidence the battery actually worked for 28,000 years, but some good data to demonstrate why they think their particular approach can last that long.
There’s a long history of high tech startups trying to get people to invest in them when there really isn’t anything there that justifies it.
Every week, I find a couple of dozen articles that interest me for blogging, but only a small number of them actually become posts. Here are a few recent ones that didn’t make the cut:
Musk has been claiming AI and robotics will ensure no one needs a job, we will need to hand everyone money in the form of UBI, but everyone will live in a penthouse. Those claims Read more…
I know I promised no more complaining about taxes, but the Democrats ruined that less than 24 hours later by proposing a new tax credit for people claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This Read more…
3 Comments
it's just Boris · April 6, 2021 at 7:21 am
Of course, from the phone maker standpoint this would put a crimp in the yearly upgrade cycle… Which would make a small additional dose rate worth it, perhaps, just to see them trying to rationalize it.
I don’t see 28k year lifetimes, though. Apart from the half-life issue, most devices like this ultimately rely on a semiconductor junction between materials with different dopings to convert something – heat, ionization, light – to an electrical potential. Over time the dopants will diffuse across the boundary layer and the device will fail. This same phenomenon is why solar cells, for instance, have a limited lifespan.
SiG · April 6, 2021 at 9:41 am
There has been talk about the Radioactive Diamond Batteries on some of the trade magazine sites for a while, and I’ve leaned toward the approach of “show me a working prototype and some evidence” about the story. I obviously don’t expect them to show me evidence the battery actually worked for 28,000 years, but some good data to demonstrate why they think their particular approach can last that long.
There’s a long history of high tech startups trying to get people to invest in them when there really isn’t anything there that justifies it.
it's just Boris · April 6, 2021 at 9:45 pm
Agreed.
All I want for Christmas is a Shipstone…
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