Radioisotope power source embedded in electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016379729-A1
Application number	US-201514753174-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2015
Priority date	Jun 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic device is proposed. The electronic device comprises: at least one electronic component formed in a chip of semiconductor material; at least one radioisotope power source unit comprising a radioactive material. The at least one radioisotope power source unit is embedded in the chip of semiconductor material together with the at least one electronic component. Moreover, the at least one radioisotope power source unit is arranged for providing electric power to said at least one electronic component by absorbing particles emitted by said radioactive material comprised in the least one radioisotope power source unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device comprising:
at least one electronic component formed in a chip of semiconductor material; at least one radioisotope power source unit comprising a radioactive material, wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is embedded in the chip of semiconductor material together with the at least one electronic component, and wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is arranged for providing electric power to said at least one electronic component by absorbing particles emitted by said radioactive material comprised in the least one radioisotope power source unit.

2 . The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit comprises a radioisotope cavity arranged for containing said radioactive material and a conversion arrangement arranged for absorbing particles emitted by said radioactive material and converting the energy associated with said particles in electric power.

3 . The electronic device according to claim 2 , wherein the conversion arrangement comprises a plurality of semiconductor diodes, particularly PIN diodes, having a lateral structure and being electrically connected in series.

4 . The electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein between consecutive PIN diodes of said plurality of PIN diodes a respective intervening intrinsic semiconductor portion is provided, each of said intervening intrinsic semiconductor portions serving as a platform for respective electrically conductive structures which electrically couple together said consecutive PIN diodes.

5 . The electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein a resulting surface of the conversion arrangement has a continuous, planar structure formed by the flushing surfaces of the PIN diodes and the intervening intrinsic portions.

6 . The electronic device according to claim 2 , wherein the radioisotope cavity comprises an opening reaching a surface of the conversion arrangement, the radioactive material contained in the radioisotope cavity being at least partly in contact with said surface of the conversion arrangement.

7 . The electronic device according to claim 2 , wherein the radioactive material is a material that emits particles due to radioactive decay process, and wherein the radiation cavity comprises a cavity having a bottom provided at a distance from an surface of the conversion arrangement lower than an absorption length associated with the particles emitted by the radioactive material.

8 . The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is embedded in the semiconductor chip at a distance from the at least one electronic component, in the order of an absorption length associated with the particles emitted by the radioactive material.

9 . The electronic device according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is embedded in the semiconductor chip at a distance from the at least one electronic component equal to, or greater than, the 70% of an absorption length associated with the particles emitted by the radioactive material.

10 . The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the radioactive material is a material that emits β particles.

11 . The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the radioactive material comprises Tritium.

12 . The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the radioactive material comprises Promethium.

13 . The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one electronic component comprises a memory element having a plurality of memory cells, and said at least one radioisotope power source unit is arranged for providing at least part of the electric power required by said memory element for storing data.

14 . The electronic device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is arranged for compensating a leakage current affecting memory cells of the memory element, thus ensuring a retention of data stored in the plurality of memory cells of the memory element.

15 . The electronic device according to claim 14 , wherein each memory cell of the plurality of memory cells comprises at least one transistor, and
wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit is arranged to supply a voltage lower than an operating supply voltage and higher than a threshold voltage of the at least one transistor of the memory cell.

16 . The electronic device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one radioisotope power source unit comprises a plurality of radioisotope power source units, and
wherein each one of the radioisotope power source units are embedded in the chip among the memory cells of the memory element and electrically connected to at least one of said memory cells of the memory element for providing electric power thereto.

17 . The electronic device according to claim 16 , wherein the memory cells of the memory elements are arranged in rows and columns forming a memory matrix, and
wherein the plurality of radioisotope power source units is arranged in a plurality of strip lines, each of said strip lines being provided between a predetermined number of rows of the memory cells and/or a predetermined number of columns of the memory cells, said strip lines being electrically coupled with the memory cells delimited by said strip lines.

18 . The electronic device according to claim 13 , wherein the memory element is a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM).

19 . The electronic device according to claim 13 , where the electronic device is a Field Programmable Gate Array.

20 . The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic component comprises a Micro-Electro-Mechanic System (MEMS) component.

21 . A method of forming an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:
forming at least one electronic component of the electronic device in a semiconductor chip, embedding in the semiconductor chip, together with said electronic components, a radioisotope power source unit adapted to provide electric power to said at least one electronic component by absorbing particles emitted by a radioactive material, said radioisotope power source unit comprising a radioactive material.

22 . The method of claim 21 ,
wherein said embedding comprises: forming a conversion arrangement of the radioisotope power source unit in a selected layer of the semiconductor chip, the conversion arrangement being adapted to provide electric power to said at least one electronic component by absorbing particles emitted by a radioactive material; forming a radioisotope cavity of the radioisotope power source unit by removing a portion of at least one layer formed on the selected layer and in correspondence of the conversion arrangement; providing the radioactive material in the radioisotope cavity.

23 . The method according to claim 22 , wherein the step of forming a conversion arrangement in a selected layer of the semiconductor chip comprises
forming said conversion arrangement in a semiconductor layer wherein doped also semiconductor operating regions of said electronic components of the electronic device are formed.

24 . The method according to claim 23 , wherein said selected layer of the semiconductor chip is formed over an insulating material layer, particularly a Bottom Oxide layer, of the semiconductor chip, the semicon

Assignees

• Tower Semiconductor Ltd
• RedCat Devices Srl

Inventors

• Roizin Yakov
• Calligaro Cristiano

Classifications

• H10D84/80

  characterised by the integration of at least one component covered by groups H10D12/00 or H10D30/00, e.g. integration of IGFETs (H10D84/40 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01L31/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G11C11/417

  for memory cells of the field-effect type · CPC title

• G21H1/06 Primary

  Cells wherein radiation is applied to the junction of different semiconductor materials · CPC title

• H01L31/115

  Electricity · mapped topic