SBIR Phase I: Advanced Micro-Pixelized Scintillator for Structural Biology

9861538 结构生物学是生物科学研究的一个重要分支，它研究蛋白质和其他大分子的三维结构，并与这些分子的生物学特性相联系。大分子晶体学提供了原子的三维分布，这在生物学、免疫学、蛋白质组装和生物工程等领域中非常重要。 同步辐射X射线源在结构生物学中有着巨大的应用前景，然而，由于缺乏合适的位置敏感的“区域”探测器，它们尚未实现其作为分析工具的潜力。由于与空间分辨率、动态范围、灵敏度和响应速度有关的关键原因，当前的探测器不能满足数据收集的要求。为了解决这些限制，我们建议开发一种新的大面积探测器的基础上，新一代的微像素化闪烁体。微像素化闪烁体将提供非常高的灵敏度、空间分辨率和信噪比的独特组合。当与大面积数字光学检测器集成时，它将允许以相对低的成本实现宽的动态范围和显著增强的吞吐量。 除了结构生物学应用之外，所提出的大面积微像素化闪烁体将广泛用于使用高分辨率X射线成像的仪器中。将这些传感器与数字光学探测器耦合构成的新型成像系统可应用于医学成像、无损检测、X射线天文学和基础物理实验。目前，X射线成像市场估计为数亿美元，并且该市场的很大一部分代表了所提出的高分辨率闪烁体技术将产生重大影响的地方。

9861538 Structural biology is an eminent branch of biological science research where the three-dimensional structure of proteins and other macromolecules is determined and is related to the biological flinction of these molecules. Macro-molecular crystallography provides the 3D distribution of atoms, which is extremely important in the fields such as erizymology, immunology, protein assembly and bioengineering. Synchrotron X-ray sources hold great promise for structural biology, however, they have not yet realized their potential as analytical tools because of the lack of appropriate position sensitive "area" detectors. Current detectors fail to meet the requirements of data collection for critical reasons related to spatial resolution, dynamic range, sensitivity, and speed of response. To address these limitations, we propose to develop a novel large area detector based on a new generation of micro-pixelized scintillator. The micro-pixelized scintillator will provide a unique combination of very high sensitivity, spatial resolution, and signal to noise ratios. When integrated with a large area digital optical detector it will allow a wide dynamic range and substantially enhanced throughput at relatively low costs. In addition to the structural biology application, the proposed large area micro-pixelized scintillator would find widespread use in instrumentation wherever high-resolution X-ray imaging is used. A novel imaging system formed by coupling these sensors to digital optical detectors may be applied to medical imaging, non-destructive testing, X-ray astronomy and basic physics experiments. Currently X-ray imaging market is estimated to be in hundreds of millions of dollars and substantial fraction of this market represents where the proposed high-resolution scintillator technology would have a significant impact.