Integrated radioactive thin films for sensing systems

Hybrid electromechanical systems with integrated power supplies are made possible with radioisotope thin films. A self-powered pressure transducer with pulsed radiofrequency (RF) output and a nanopower betavoltaic microbattery suitable for low-power CMOS are demonstrated in this paper. The pressure transducer collects charges emitted from the radioisotope with a dielectric cantilever to realize a self-reciprocating process, whose period is modulated by the ambient pressure. A RF pulse is generated at the end of each cycle by impulse excitation of the dielectric waveguide. The pressure can be determined by externally detecting the period between RF pulses.