LARGE AREA HIGH RESOLUTION X-RAY DETECTOR FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

THE AVAILABILITY OF HIGH INTENSITY, SYNCHROTRON SOURCES TO PRODUCE HIGH FLUX, MONOCHROMATIC X-RAY BEAMS HAS RESULTED IN IMPORTANT ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR STRUCTURE DETERMINATION STUDIES INCLUDING THE DETERMINATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF LARGE, FRAGILE BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES. ALTHOUGH THESE SOURCES REPRESENT A MAJOR ADVANCE IN TECHNOLOGY, AT PRESENT THERE ARE NO LARGE AREA DETECTORS WITH BOTH THE HIGH FLUX CAPABILITY AND GOOD SPATIAL RESOLUTION NECESSARY TO MAKE USE OF THE FULL POTENTIAL OF X-RAY DIFFRACTION MEASUREMENTS. TO ADDRESS THIS SITUATION, THE SPECIFIC AIM OF THE EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP THE TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL LEAD TO AN INNOVATIVE SOLID STATE, POSITION SENSITIVE X-RAY DETECTOR WHICH WILL HAVE THE PERFORMANCE NEEDED TO MORE FULLY UTILIZE THE POWER OF MODERN SYNCHROTRON SOURCES. WE WILL DEVELOP A LARGE AREA DETECTOR (POTENTIALLY METERS SQUARE) WITH 100MU M SPATIAL RESOLUTION, WIDE DYNAMIC RANGE AND HIGH X-RAY STOPPING POWER. THIS WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT BREAKTHROUGH IN THE STATE-OF-THE-ART AND WOULD BE A VALUABLE ASSET TO A VARIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS.