Engineering news
Conventional X-ray detectors are made of heavy, rigid material such as silicon or germanium. The new flexible detectors are made of ‘tissue-equivalent’ materials, meaning they behave more like human tissue when exposed to X-rays.
The resulting devices are cheaper and can be shaped around the objects that need to be scanned, improving accuracy when screening patients and reducing risk when imaging tumours and administering radiotherapy, according to the Surrey researchers.
Research leader Dr Prabodhi Nanayakkara said: “This new material is flexible, low-cost, and sensitive. But what’s exciting is that this material is tissue equivalent. This paves the way for live dosimetry, which just isn’t possible with current technology.”
Most X-ray detectors on the market are heavy, rigid, energy-consuming and expensive if a large area needs to be covered. Organic semiconductors made of hydrogen and carbon offer a more flexible solution, the researchers said, but until now they did not provide X-ray images with equivalent levels of detail.
To tackle this challenge, scientists at the University of Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) created devices based on an ink, by adding low quantities of high atomic number elements to an organic semiconductor.
Building on the team’s previous research in this field, the new detector behaves more like human tissue under X-rays, which could lead to new, safer techniques for administering radiotherapy, mammography and radiography.
Professor Ravi Silva, director of Surrey's ATI, said: “This new technology could be used in a variety of settings, such as radiotherapy, scanning historical artefacts and in security scanners. The University of Surrey, together with its spin out SilverRay Ltd, continues to lead the way in flexible X-ray detectors – we're pleased to see the technology shows real promise for a range of uses.”
Professor Martin Heeney from Imperial College London, a co-author of a new paper on the work, said: “We have been developing heavy analogues of traditional organic semiconductors for some time, and we were intrigued when Dr Imalka Jayawardena suggested their application in X-ray detectors. These results are very exciting, especially considering this was the first material investigated, and there is plenty of scope for further improvements.”
The research was published in Advanced Science.
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