Development and Commercialization of an Integrating, Gain-Autoranging Hybrid Pixel X-ray Detector

In recent years, powerful X-ray light source facilities such as synchrotrons and free electron lasers have been developed for studying the structure of matter down to the atomic scale, and to create “molecular movies” of chemical reaction on time scales of picoseconds down to femtoseconds. To push the knowledge frontier across the many branches of science informed by these techniques, these facilities are continuing to upgrade their X-ray sources. As a consequence, these facilities come up against the limits of existing X-ray detectors to record intense X-ray pulses, and therefore they require new, advanced detectors with which to record their X-ray patterns. This project will use this grant to create a complete commercialization strategy for a newly- developed, high-resolution pixelated detector. This detector has the capability to integrate signals from X-ray patterns, and record them at orders of magnitude higher rate than possible with current detector products used at these facilities. This detector is also a perfect companion for free electron laser sources, which have few suitable options for measuring near- instantaneous X-ray diffraction and scattering. The excellent data quality produced by this detector will inform many branches of science utilizing the diffraction, scattering, and microscopy techniques at these X-ray facilities. Researches will be able to advance the properties of high-tech materials, microscopically visualize batteries during their operation, or even determine the structure and kinetics of biomolecules, leading to advances in medicine and pharmaceuticals.