SBIR Phase I: Development of XRD Based On-Line Characterization of Semicrystalline Plastics

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the feasibility for nondestructive, on-line monitoring of critical plastic film crystalline characteristics, including percent crystallinity, crystal size, and crystal orientation. Novel collimated polycapillary x-ray optics coupled with a proprietary x-ray source management system to form a compact, safe, reliable, rugged, low-power X-Beam will be used to carry out x-ray diffraction measurements. Currently there is no practical, nondestructive on-line method to provide this information in real time during the manufacturing process. The behavior and manipulation of semi-crystalline plastics are of great interest to major sectors of the U.S. industry including packaging, automotive, consumer electronics, medical instruments, along with a great variety of aerospace and defense applications. Crystalline information is important for semi-crystalline plastic products because it strongly influences thermal, mechanical, electrical, optical, and chemical resistant properties. The proposed project will focus on high-value, biaxially-oriented films for high-performance plastics electronics applications.