Swedish researchers develop digital color x-rays

May The advantages of color x-rays may not be immediately obvious but the developments in this field led by researchers at Mid Sweden University promise some exciting new possibilities for medical diagnoses much smaller x-rays doses for patients, much higher resolution and the ability to detect tumors at a much earlier stage. Digital color x-rays are based on the same advanced technology that is used when nuclear physicists look for new elementary particles. The greatest scientific challenge in constructing a color x-ray camera is to be able to shrink the large-scale detection equipment used by nuclear physicists to the microscopic format. The readout electronics for each pixel in the camera’s picture sensor must be squeezed into an area of 55 x 55 µm, and what’s more be x-ray safe.

Mid Sweden University researchers have solved these aforementioned design problems and will be presenting three dissertations in the field of digital color x-rays later this year.

Furthermore, they have shown that Medipix2 can be used to reduce the radiation dosage in dental x-rays. Industry also expects to be able to use Medipix2 technology to see the consistency of materials.

“With our digital color x-rays it will be possible to cut the radiation risk in half for x-ray examinations,” says Börje Norlin.

Using advanced computer simulations of the next generation of x-ray cameras, Mid Sweden University has also developed ways to enhance the quality of color x-rays. The cameras will have higher resolution and be able to show more colors of higher quality.