KA Imaging’s patented amorphous selenium (a-Se) BrillianSe™ X-ray imaging detectors have been designed into the new 20-ID High-Energy X-ray Microscope (HEXM) beamline. This beamline is one of the two ‘long’ beamlines constructed as part of the APS-Upgrade. This new facility will produce X-rays up to 500 times brighter than the current ones, paving the way for unprecedented scientific discoveries.
BrillianSe™ has micron-scale pixel dimensions (8 μm) and high detection efficiency for hard X-ray energies above 20 keV. The detector consists of a monolithic hybrid detector built by direct deposition of an a-Se photoconductor on a custom designed CMOS readout integrated circuit. It enables efficient, high spatial resolution X-ray imaging at low flux and high energy, as well as propagation-based (grating-less) phase-contrast for improved sensitivity when imaging low-density materials.
“BrillianSe addresses demands for high-energy and high spatial resolution X-ray imaging for materials science,” said Christopher Scott, Technical Lead at KA Imaging. “The BrillianSe direct conversion approach, coupled with a micron-scale pixel, is uniquely positioned against the relatively large-pixel photon counters and inefficient, bulky optics-based scintillator detectors. This detector technology will advance research in materials science applications such as diffraction-based microstructure imaging,” he continued.
Using energies between 35-120 keV, the 20-ID High-Energy X-ray Microscope (HEXM) beamline will enable imaging of the fine structures of materials with high resolution and under a host of controllable conditions.
With BrillianSe detector technology and the capabilities of the APS-U HEXM, materials as large as a centimeter can be visualized and examined from the grain scale down to the atomic level. Jet turbine engine disks, nuclear fuel assemblies, solar cells, and battery materials are among the potential candidates for analysis. These materials will be examined to identify cracks, voids, hot spots, and other defects, helping to improve the lifetime, energy efficiency, and safety of these key components.
The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research.
About KA Imaging
KA imaging produces affordable, easy to use, high-resolution X-ray area detectors, flat panel detectors and 3D phase contrast X-ray microscopes for medical, scientific, and industrial non-destructive test (NDT) imaging applications.
