Innovative Material
The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology announced on October 11 that the research center developed a material for detectors that can slash radiation exposure to less than one-tenth when taking medical images such as X-rays and computerized tomography (CT) pictures through joint research with Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul.
The research results hit the online edition of the journal Nature. Samsung Electronics explained that the company developed a perovskite semiconductor material that is over 20 times more sensitive than conventional flat X-ray panel detectors and enables a still lower production cost so led to the invention of more affordable X-ray detectors with low-dose radiation. The higher the sensitivity, the more medical images can be obtained with a much lower X-ray dose.
When this technology is commercialized, Samsung Electronics will be able to create an X-ray device that can take an X-ray of a whole body at one time.
X-ray detectors, which convert x-rays transmitted through the human body into photographs and images, have evolved from films to digital flat panel detectors. But the problem was high cost and high radiation exposure. Therefore, projects for the reduction of X-ray exposure have been widely carried out in the United States and the European Union (EU).
"In order to apply perovskite materials to x-rays with high permeability, perovskite materials with thickness more than 1,000 times the thickness of solar cells are needed and at the same time, the ability to preserve electric signals converted by x-rays should be secured. The new synthesis method that we have developed this time will satisfy all of these requirements," said Han In-taek, an executive director of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.