PEROTECH, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: HR001121S0007-21

Description

The current X-ray imaging devices ion the market cannot meet the rising requirements for more safe, higher resolution and portable X-ray imaging applications. One new technology, photon-counting X-ray detector, is revolutionizing the X-ray imaging process which afford high spatial resolution, almost zero electronic noise, much better signal-to-noise ratio, at orders of magnitude lower radiation dose and with intrinsic spectrum information. However, a major part of the cost is from detector materials CdZnTe (CZT). Perotech is developing X-ray detection technology using metal halide perovskitse for direct X-ray detection and imaging. Metal halide perovskites are a new generation of semiconductor materials that has been intensively studied recently for efficient and low-cost solar cells. These new materials have large mobility-lifetime product which is a figure-of-merit that determines charge collection efficiency. These materials have an exciting combination of properties including very good X-ray stopping power, excellent charge collection, low cost, and ease of deposition onto large area X-ray detector flat panel using the solution process. Perotech propose a novel perovskite material structure and integration methods with readout electronics to develop large area perovskite detectors. The project leverages our extensive experience in perovskite material development and understanding of requirements of integration. The success of this project will yield new detection materials with performance better than existing CZT, but are 100-1000 times cheaper. These perovskite direct detectors have much better spatial resolution images than indirect detectors based on scintillators, and it will allow high spectrum resolution of