CITY LABS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: J201-CSO1

Description

City Labs’ tritium power source, NanoTritiumTM P100 betavoltaic battery, provides continuous low power for decades.  The power solution was commercialized by City Labs over 8 years ago and has been purchased for memory backup, low power sensors, and research applications. The Model P100 has been tested by independent third parties to extreme temperatures of -55°C to 150°C. Chemical based batteries cannot operate on such a wide temperature range making the Model P100 unique among small power sources. Recently, the Air Force has been investigating solutions for powering CubeSats for defense application. These satellites can be as small as a cell phone and need a small power source that can handle wide temperature conditions. Unfortunately, solar cells are not sufficient for this Air Force requirement due to the relatively small size of these satellites and concomitant lack of attitude control for solar power harvesting, and temperature control for secondary batteries.  What is needed is a small, long-term, temperature independent, power solution.  The enhanced Model P100 will be a diminutive power source that can handle extreme temperatures while providing long-term, continuous power for an Air Force CubeSat.