LIV.DAT student completes placement at Silveray
LIV.DAT student Luana Parsons Franca completed a 6 month industrial placement at Silveray, a Stockport based company developing flexible direct conversion X-ray detectors. Her work at Silveray focused on R&D into gratings-based phase-contrast and dark-field imaging.
Conventional X-rays are relatively cheap and easy to access in health facilities. They are capable of imaging higher density materials, such as bones, but not well suited for imaging soft tissues, such as lungs. The implementation of phase contrast/dark-field imaging could extend the use of conventional x-ray machines used in hospitals, allowing for better contrast in images. This could enable preventative care of illnesses such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is currently relies on expensive CT scans, often resulting in late detection and treatment.
Using gratings to create an interference pattern between the X-ray waves, it is possible to separate 3 different processes that occur when the x-rays interact with matter: small angle scattering, phase shift and attenuation. This results in three different images being produced from contributions of the different processes. Each image contains different complementary information about the object being scanned.
Variations in attenuation of x-rays when passing through materials of different densities, create the traditional x-ray images that we are familiar with. Small angle scattering occurs when x-rays scatter off very small objects, allowing for the detection of very small structures. Phase contrast results from the refraction of x-ray waves when travelling through different mediums, which creates contrast in the image, enabling the imaging of soft tissues.
Small objects and even living beings, such as mice, have been imaged using this technique, but this field is currently limited by ability to fabricate large area gratings, necessary for imaging larger organs in the human body such as lungs. Luana’s project involved R&D for fabrication of large area gratings. During her placement she lead the phase-contrast and dark-field imaging research at Silveray, met with various collaborators and suppliers and travelled to Sweden and Germany to collect equipment, conduct knowledge transfer and measurements.
Luana said: “This placement was a unique experience of working within the x-ray industry. I had the opportunity to develop knowledge in a completely new field and work with an incredible team, developing cutting edge research!”
Luana’s work included simulation of X-ray Talbot interference patterns, computational image processing and work on costing a setup of gratings based phase-contrast imaging system.