A startup company is developing a flat-panel source of x-rays that could help make the imaging technique portable. The company's panels are made using techniques commonplace in the semiconductor industry and would be combined with flat-panel image sensors to make a briefcase-sized x-ray machine powered by a laptop battery. Such a system might be used in the field by the military or instead of bulky bedside systems used in hospital intensive-care units. Early research also suggests it might expose patients to less radiation.
The company behind the x-ray source, Radius Health,
was spun out of the University of California, Los Angeles last year. It
is developing a commercial version of a flat-panel x-ray source
developed by physicists at the university. The company will make its
first complete x-ray imager in three to four months and says it will
have a full-scale prototype in a year.
The x-ray machines used in hospitals today employ a high-energy source of the radiation. A tungsten filament at one end of a long vacuum tube emits electrons when heated and those accelerate down the tube until they hit a metal electrode, causing it to produce x-rays.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Technology Review: Creating a Portable X-Ray Machine
Author: Katherine
Bourzac
