Mini x-ray imaging based on safely shielded pure beta radioisotopes

This paper reports preliminary experimental results confirming the feasibility of a miniaturized x-ray imaging system utilizing safely shielded pure beta radioisotopes with a volume of only 3.77cm³. The traditional power hungry and complex electron accelerator setup is replaced with an initially high-energy (709keV) electron emitting radioisotope source, and this paper presents the first x-ray imaging results with a <;200μm resolution (limited by test setup) from micro-packaged radioisotopes. Geometry and materials of the shielding structure is proposed based on Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) simulator software. The same simulator is also utilized to look into future tunability of such a system by swapping different metals as a planar target.