Hardware


transdermally to detect whether a tumor is regrowing. Or for a glaucoma patient, they put sensors and processors inside the e ye. NanoTritium battery technology, which can be made as thin and small as a cubic millimeter, can be combined with a battery chip sensor that can then be implanted into all sorts of medical applications that no one’s even thought about.


VME: Any other possible applications before we move on?


CABAUY: There are also applications within Homeland Security, intelligence


Radioisotopes for FPGAs? Sure thing. SBC_Ad_4_62x7final 2/25/11 3:08 PM Page 1


sensors, structural integrity sensors, sen- sor actuators, space satellite pro-power sources, and crystal oscillators, if the y’re within 15 microwatts. Combine these batteries with a lithium thin-film bat- tery, some type of lithium ion battery , or an ultracapacitor, and that can k eep these batteries topped off for years until a usage need arises. So the battery’s self- discharge is eliminated and then it can be used like a reserve battery. Or it can be used in combination with duty-cycle and it can operate and provide a power burst every week, every day, for RF signals and so forth. The applications are unlimited.


VME: As we wrap up, is there anything else we should know about City Labs or tritium-based batteries?


CABAUY: Yes. Since the NanoTritium batteries are radioisotope powered, you can’t just go buy them at the corner mar- ket. Typically, their use requires radia- tion training and a radioactive license on behalf of the user or the indi vidual pur- chasing them.


VME: What does this mean? That the user needs to be a nuclear engineer?


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CABAUY: Normally, radioisotope products are classified under three gen - eral headings: specific license, general license, or exempt license. The smoke alarm you see in your home or office is an exempt license. The Exit sign you see at Home Depot or in a commercial aircraft is illuminated with tritium, also falling under a general license. And, medical tracers and the things the Department of Energy is using – those are under the spe- cific license.


Very few products obtain the general license or exempt license status, because they have to be pro ven inherently safe through all sorts of testing processes. But City Labs re cently achieved regula- tory approval in the form of a general license issued by the Florida Department of Health - Bureau of Radiation Control; as an Agreement State, Florida’s general license mirrors the policies and guide - lines established by the Nuclear Re gula- tory Commission. So now we can sell our NanoTritium batteries an ywhere in the United States. You can just put the order in and receive it without any training, without any prior radiation license. There’s never been a general license classification for a battery before, so that says that we broke some ground in the industry. CS


Peter Cabauy cofounded City Labs, Inc. in 2005 and serves as CEO. Peter received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Applied Physics and a BS from Florida International University. Contact him at pcabauy@citylabs.net.


City Labs www.citylabs.net


18 VME and Critical Systems / Spring 2011 SBC_Island.pdf 1 2/25/11 3:10 PM


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