Creatv MicroTech invention wins a 2006 R&D 100 Award
in BETTER X-RAY IMAGING
Grids and
Collimators for a New Generation of X-ray
and Nuclear Imaging
R&D Magazine has granted its prestigious R&D 100
award to our Chicago area team, composed of
researchers at Argonne National Lab and start-up Creatv
MicroTech, for developing a product to clean
up the images produced by x-rays and nuclear
medicine. The result is a clearer picture for
physicians to see, enabling more accurate diagnoses.
What it is: X-rays are used in medical diagnostics,
because they can travel through matter and create an
image based on the anatomy. Some of the x-rays
scatter in all directions and create a fog on the
film, making it hard to distinguish diseased from
healthy tissues. This advanced grid improves x-ray
imaging, used in mammography, chest x-rays, computed
tomography (CT) and other medical imaging
applications. Argonne and Creatv MicroTech developed
advanced devices, called grids, to cut down on these
scattered rays, while leaving most of the desired
ones, resulting in clearer images.
Nuclear medicine utilizes radiotracers to diagnose
cancer and other diseases. Radiotracers emit photons
in all directions and do not produce a useful image
unless the photons are organized, or collimated.
Collimators, similar to grids, are used for nuclear
imaging to direct only the desired radiation to the
detector. Other applications include animal imaging
for research studies and industrial purposes.
How it Works: The Argonne/Creatv team uses a deep
x-ray lithography technique and electroforming to
fashion metal grids and collimators with tiny,
precise walls as thin as .025 mm (0.001 inch), and
up to 3 mm tall. Taller structures are obtained by
precision stacking.
Why it’s Important: This team’s high precision grids
and collimators will usher in a new generation of
high resolution digital imaging systems now being
developed by the imaging system makers. Creatv’s
fabrication techniques also allow the substitution
of environment-friendly tungsten to replace lead in
some of these products.
The Team: Derrick Mancini, Ralu Divan and Judi
Yaeger from Argonne; Olga Makarova, Guohua Yang and
Cha-Mei Tang from Creatv MicroTech; and former
Argonne employees Vladislav N. Zyryanov, now at
Illinois Institute of Technology, and Nicolaie
Moldovan, now at Northwestern University.
