The Rapid-Production of the High-Performance and Affordable Cadmium Telluride and Cadmium Zinc Telluride for Medical Imaging Applications

The high spatial resolution and energy resolution of cadmium zinc tellurideCZTand cadmium tellurideCdTecompared to that of scintillatorsoffers superior image quality in Nuclear medicine and X rayimaging applicationsi eSPECTPETCTBone DensitometryOncologyDental imagingAirportsecurityetcEven after two decades of researchCZT and CdTe remain the desired choice for roomtemperature radiation detectionbut it is limited by high cost and availability resulting from low yield andlong production times associated with commercial growth techniquesi ethe Traveling Heater MethodTHMHoweverthe application of the Accelerated Crucible Rotation Technique by Modified VerticalBridgmanACRT MVBgrowth method at WSU has proven to produce industrial qualityhighperformance CZT CdTeThis new growth method not only allows CZT CdTe to be grown with the samequality as material grown by THMbut also at growth rates approximatelytimes faster than THMSpecificallyCZT CdTe is grown by THM at a rate of approximatelymm per daywhereas CZT CdTegrowth by ACRT MVB can be accomplished at much faster rates of approximatelymm per hourCZT CdTe crystal growth in the current commercial methodsthe Traveler Heater MethodTHMrequiresa lower growth temperature for high quality deviceswhich results in highly off stoichiometric meltsthereby inducing the need for postprocessingThese major challenges associated with the crystal growth ofCZT CdTe have been overcome using ACRT MVBImproving and reproducing the single crystal yield ofcommercial grade CZT CdTe is the next critical stepRecentlyconsiderable improvement in the singlecrystal yield has been achieved by WSU when grown under off stoichiometricexcess TeconditionsAn optimization in terms of rotation profiletemperature profileand Te concentration will beperformed to improve the yield while retaining the superior device performance in Phase I effortsIn PhaseIIthis technology will be transferred from WSU to RDTThe medical diagnostic imaging market isprojected to cross $billion byStakeholders in the medical imaging market need CZT CdTedevices nowespecially devices that are capable of high count rate imaging applicationsa focus in thisPhase I effortThe fruition of this project will be the significant reductionandgtxof industrial grade materialcosts by increasing the yieldreducing the growth timeand eliminating post growth anneal treatmentscurrently used by industryWith the fast production time and high performance of the CZT CdTe producedin this effortthe medical imaging market will finally have a fast turnaround time and consistent highperformance material that can easily be obtaineda andgtx price reduction is projected for CZT CdTeandUS business will have access to an affordablehigh performance CZT CdTe material that can beobtained for imaging instrumentation and other radiation detection applications Project Narrative The high spatial resolution and energy resolution of cadmium zinc tellurideCZTand cadmium tellurideCdTecompared to that of scintillatorsoffers superior image quality in nuclear medicine and X ray imaging applicationsUnfortunatelythe current state of the arti eTraveler Heater Methodfor growing CZT and CdTe crystals is slowexpensiveand does not meet the demands of the current market needsThe Accelerated Crucible Rotation Technique by Modified Vertical BridgmanACRT MVBis a new and rapid production process for growing high performance CZT and CdTe crystalsa process that will change the current CZT CdTe market by providing affordablehigh quality devices to stakeholders in the highdemand and growing medical imaging markets