NASA SBIR 2010 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc.
44 Hunt Street
Watertown, MA 02472 - 4699
(617) 668-6800

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Noa M. Rensing
nrensing@rmdinc.com
44 Hunt St.
Watertown, MA 02472 - 4699
(617) 668-6943

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., (RMD) proposes to develop an alternative very long term, radioisotope power source with thermoelectric power conversion with greater than 10% energy efficiency for deep space applications. The proposed technology is based on a betavoltaic generator which can be produced in bulk form, allowing the construction of generators with power output similar to radioisotope thermal generators (RTG) but with higher efficiency. In Phase I, RMD will estimate the potential performance of the betavoltaic generator, examine practical issues affecting manufacturability and lifetime, and experimentally demonstrate components of the proposed betavoltaics generator. The Phase I results will provide clear "Go-No Go" results. The goal of Phase II is to complete the research and development on the betavoltaic generator technology, and to build and test a small prototype system with at least 10% conversion efficiency. A major focus of Phase II will be the development of the crystal growth process including dispersing radioactive sources within the scintillator. By the end of Phase II, the generator technology will have been demonstrated and ready for further engineering to bring it to a more advanced level (TRL-6) in 2 to 3 years.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Potential NASA applications include power sources for satellites, balloons, remote terrestrial locations and planetary rovers.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Potential non-NASA commercial applications which could potentially use much smaller versions of the generator technology include remote instrumentation for environmental measurements, remote sensors for Homeland Security, very long term remote sensors for traffic and other civilian applications, remote terrestrial commercial monitoring or surveillance applications, and implantable medical devices.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.)

Generation