The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 22, 2022
Filed:
May. 30, 2019
United States of America As Represented BY the Administrator of Nasa, Washington, DC (US);
Sang H. Choi, Poquoson, VA (US);
Dennis M. Bushnell, Hampton, VA (US);
David R. Komar, Hampton, VA (US);
Robert C. Hendricks, Cleveland, OH (US);
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to a nuclear thermionic avalanche cell (NTAC) systems and related methods of generating energy comprising a radioisotope core, a plurality of thin-layered radioisotope sources configured to emit high energy beta particles and high energy photons, and a plurality of NTAC layers integrated with the radioisotope core and the radioisotope sources, wherein the plurality of NTAC layers are configured to receive the beta particles and the photons from the radioisotope core and sources, and by the received beta particles and photons, free up electrons in an avalanche process from deep and intra bands of an atom to output a high density avalanche cell thermal energy through a photo-ionic or thermionic process of the freed up electrons.