New-Age Pyroelectric Radiographic X-Ray Generators

Year 2019, , 125 - 132, 17.05.2019

Yalcin Isler Saadet Sena Egeli Alpman Manalp

https://doi.org/10.28978/nesciences.567072

Abstract

Medical imaging history has begun with the discovery of X-rays. X-rays that are widely used since
their invention in different areas from projectional radiography to computed tomography. Year by
year their technology is improved in many aspects especially for their generation of which tubes
are changed to get the most efficient rays. Nowadays different mechanisms are studied to obtain
X-rays; one of them is pyroelectricity phenomena. Pyroelectricity is a material’s electricity
generation from temperature changes. The output spectra of the pyroelectric X-ray generator is
quite similar to traditional X-ray tubes, which gives a chance for replacing low-voltage pyroelectric
X-ray generators instead of high-voltage conventional X-ray tubes. The results of conducted
experiments and continued studies show us that the use of pyroelectricity for X-ray generation has
great advantages. More portable X-ray devices may be available in the near future, and these new
designs offer safer and easier to operate since they use only 12 Volts instead of kiloVolts. In
conclusion, healthcare technologies require high budges in general, this low-cost alternative might
make the radiological imaging available for low-income countries. In this paper, the fundamentals
of X-ray generation from pyroelectric material is reviewed, a device on the market, COOL-X, is
investigated, and both conventional method and pyroelectricity methods are compared.

Keywords

Pyroelectricity, X-ray generation, Medical radiology

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