Spire receives grants for x-ray medical imaging

The US Department of Energy awarded Spire (Bedford, MA) a $75,000 grant to develo¥a CdZnTe photodiode focal-plane array for x-ray medical imaging. The photodiodes will be fabricated with metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition and advanced array-processing technology. Advantages of CdTe arrays include higher spatial and energy resolution and sensitivity, with potential to replace x-ray screen-film receptors and scintillator-photodiode detectors in scanning medical imaging. Spire was also granted a similar amount from the US National Institutes of Health to develo¥integrated CdTe/CdS photodiodes on ceramic scintillators for enhanced sensitivity detectors for x-ray computed tomography. The photodiodes will be fabricated directly on the scintillator, reducing assembly complexity. Optical losses at the photodiode/scintillator interface are also reduced.