A Novel High Resolution Photon Counting Detector for Radiographic Inspections

Radiographic inspection of munitions and ordnance prior to deployment in combat zones is vital for ensuring their safety and reliability.In particular, neutron radiography is a very efficient tool for such inspections and non-destructive testing (NDT) of munitions. However, high resolution, real-time, digital area detectors for neutron radiography do not exist at present.The current technology is film based, which offers excellent resolution but suffers from excessively low detection efficiency, making it necessary to use exposures in excess of 8 hours to produce a radiograph and the data is in analog form.Computed radiography (CR) addresses the latter limitation, but still suffers from low detection efficiency. We propose to develop and deliver to the US Army a novel high-resolution, high efficiency digital detector capable of acquiring thermal neutron images over a large area with high contrast and enhanced signal-to-noise ratio.As such the proposed detector is anticipated to be disruptive to the traditional film-based or the current state-of-the-art computed radiography technology and will bring about transformational impact in the neutron NDT in particular, and neutron radiography in general. The proposed detector will allow the US Army to perform real-time load plant line inspections.