Radioactively powered pressure transducer with RF pulse output

Author

Hui Li ; Lal, A.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2003

Firstpage

53

Abstract

We present a self-powered reciprocating cantilever for vacuum sensing with RF pulse transmission realizing an integrated self-powered sensor and information transmission platform. By collecting electrons emitted from a radioisotope, the cantilever realizes a self-reciprocating process and the period of the reciprocation is modulated by the ambient pressure. RF pulse can be generated at the end of each cycle of the reciprocation if a dielectric plate is used as the cantilever, by impulse excitation of the dielectric waveguide. The pressure can be determined by externally detecting the period between RF pulses. Pressure measurements in the range of 15 mTorr to 800 mTorr were made, with a pressure sensitivity of 66 millisecond/mTorr.

Keywords

lead compounds; micromechanical devices; piezoelectric materials; piezoelectric transducers; pressure measurement; pressure transducers; 15 to 800 mtorr; PZT; PbZrO3TiO3; RF pulse transmission output; dielectric plate; dielectric waveguide; pressure measurements; pressure sensitivity; radioactively powered pressure transducer; radioisotope; self-powered reciprocating cantilever; self-powered sensor; self-reciprocating process; vacuum sensing; Dielectrics; Electrodes; Electron emission; Ionization; Micromechanical devices; Pressure measurement; Pulse generation; Radio frequency; Radioactive materials; Transducers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 12th International Conference on, 2003

Conference_Location

Boston, MA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7731-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2003.1215251

Filename

1215251