Development of Wolter Capillary Condenser for High Throughput X-ray Microscopy

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议开发一种用于X射线显微镜的Wolter毛细管冷凝器。它的成功开发将使台式X射线显微镜的吞吐量提高10倍，并显着降低系统成本，以便在生物医学实验室中广泛部署。这些益处来自于所提出的Wolter毛细管冷凝器的上级光学性质，其使得能够采用高亮度但低成本的X射线微焦点源，而不是高成本高功率的旋转阳极X射线发生器。提出申请的公司已经开发出生产高质量单反射毛细管聚光器的专有技术，用于公司的商业X射线显微镜。提议的Wolter毛细管冷凝器需要进一步开发公司目前的毛细管制造技术，以满足更严格的工艺控制，因为它由双曲面和椭圆形毛细管镜组成，需要沿其轴沿着精确对齐。该项目的成功完成将使用于生物应用的3-D X射线显微镜更加强大，负担得起和实用。令人兴奋的功能包括原位高分辨率3D成像的细胞和组织标本，经历了很少的形态和功能的变化，从他们的自然生活状态，和功能特异性成像结合使用建立标记技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a Wolter capillary condenser for x-ray microscopy. Its successful development will improve the throughput of tabletop x-ray microscopes by 10 times and significantly reduces the system cost for wide deployment in biomedical laboratories. These benefits result from the superior optical property of the proposed Wolter capillary condenser that enables one to employ high brilliance but low cost x-ray microfocus sources instead of high-cost high-powered rotary anode x-ray generators. The proposing company has developed proprietary technology for producing high-quality single-reflection capillary condensers used in the company's commercial x-ray microscopes. The proposed Wolter capillary condenser requires further development of the company's current capillary fabrication technology to meet the tighter process control because it consists of hyperboloidal and ellipsoidal capillary mirrors that need to be precisely aligned along their axes. Successful completion of the project will make 3-D x-ray microscopy for biological applications more powerful, affordable, and practical. Exciting capabilities include in-situ high resolution 3D imaging of cell and tissue specimens that have undergone little morphological and functional change from their natural living state, and function specific imaging used in combination with established labeling techniques.