새 구조의 액정 엑스선 감지기

Abstract

We developed a new x-ray image sensor utilizing a reflection-mode liquid crystal panel as its sensitive element, and tested its functionality by using it to obtain an x-ray image of a printed circuit board. In the liquid crystal x-ray image sensors hitherto reported, the liquid crystal layer is in direct contact with the photoconductive film which is deposited on a glass substrate. In the fabrication of the new x-ray image sensor, a liquid crystal panel is fabricated in the first step by using a pair of glass plates of a few centimeters thicknrss. Then one of the glass substrates is ground until its thickness is reduced to about 60 μm. After polishing the glass plate, dielectric films for high reflectance at 630 nm, a film of amorphous selenium for photoconduction, and a transparent conductive film for electrode are deposited in sequence. The new x-ray image sensor has several merits: primarily, fabrication of a large area sensor is more easily compared with the old fashioned x-ray image sensors. Since the reflection type liquid crystal panel has a very steep response curve, the new x-ray sensor has much more sensitivity to x-rays compared with the conventional x-ray area sensor, and the radiation dosage can be reduced down to less then 20%. By combining the new x-ray sensor with CCD camera technology, real-time x-ray images can be easily captured. We report the structure, fabrication process and characteristics of the new x-ray image sensor.