The FLEX-RAY project brings together expertise in materials, fibre optics, analogue and digital electronics, and particle physics to develop the necessary technologies towards producing the world’s first ultra-flexible, low-cost, self-shape reporting X-ray detector.
X-ray imaging is instrumental for a wide range of applications such as medicine, food, security, industrial non-destructive testing (NDT) and particle physics, but existing methods remain restricted in terms of flexibility and materials cost.
Inherent inflexibility of the digital electronics and scintillating materials that are applied in charge-integrating and particle-counting detectors, results in inaccurate imaging of complex geometries due to geometric magnification. This represents a severe problem for industrial NDT and medical applications. Also existing designs require both scintillating material and electronic hardware systems to be placed across the beam path, resulting in increased manufacturing and maintenance costs.
The FLEX-RAY project intends to re-define x-ray detectors through a completely innovative architecture that places the electronic hardware outside the beam path, leading to reduced material and manufacturing costs.
FLEX-RAY is coordinated and project managed by TWI Hellas, who is also responsible for developing the hardware and firmware for the electronics, and leading the characterisation of the proof-of-concept FLEX-RAY detector.
Partners: University of Sheffield, Optolectronica-2001 S.A., RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
FLEX-RAY is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under FETOPEN.