Ultra Fast X-Ray Imaging Detector

High speed X-ray imaging is extremely important for several military and civilian applications such as analyzing ballistic impacts, imaging exploding land mines, medical computed tomography, time resolved X-ray diffraction of biological systems, and drugdevelopment research. The advent of high flux, micro-focused, X-ray sources have now facilitated high-speed imaging in laboratory environments. However, these X-ray sources have not yet realized their full potential due to the lack of a suitable fastx-ray imaging system. Specifically, a lack of high-resolution detection systems with large active imaging areas and a microsecond time resolution is the major limiting factor in these important applications.To address these limitations we propose to develop a novel x-ray imaging system based on a high resolution, high efficiency, fast-decay-time scintillator screen optically coupled to a new design of an ultra-fast CCD. The proposed digital system willcapture images at 1000000 frames per second or greater, with the effective dynamic range of 12 bits. The Phase I research will demonstrate the feasibility of the core technology and will provide a detailed plan for the Phase II system development. In addition to the air force application, the proposed detector would find widespread use in instrumentation where high resolution and fast readout x-ray detectors are used. These include numerous other defense applications, medical functional imaging,structural biology, microtomography of teeth and bones, polymer processing, x-ray astronomy, nondestructive testing, and basic physics research. High-resolution digital x-ray imaging detectors currently have a large commercial market, and as such, theproposed development holds a very high potential for commercialization.