Overview
- Avalanche Energy, which announced the win Wednesday, secured a share of a $5.2 million DARPA Rads to Watts award to develop compact nuclear batteries.
- DARPA set a goal of more than 10 watts per kilogram from a few‑kilogram device that can power a laptop‑class system for months in space or defense use.
- Avalanche will build solid‑state alphavoltaic cells that turn alpha‑particle decay into electricity using micro‑fabricated, radiation‑tolerant converter chips.
- The company is leading a team from the University of Utah, Caltech, Los Alamos National Laboratory and McQuaide Microsystems on a 30‑month effort to validate the physics and deliver a prototype.
- Leaders say the same materials and designs could capture alpha particles in Avalanche’s portable fusion work, which could later cut fuel runs for satellites and remote military units.