Prototype of Flexible Digital X-Ray Imaging Detector

Abstract

This letter presents the development of a flexible digital X-ray imaging detector based on flat panel display manufacturing principles. The detector array was fabricated using amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si TFTs) on flexible polyimide (PI) substrate. The TFT characteristics of the flexible detector array show comparable performance to the glass substrate detector array. The field effect mobility ( $\mu $ ) of a-Si TFT on flexible substrate was 0.66 cm2/V $\cdot $ s, the thresholder voltage (VT) was 4.21 V, the subthreshold slops (SS) was 0.42 V/decade, and the off-current (IOFF) was about $6.5\times 10^{-{14}}$ A. The X-ray image was 161 mm $\times$ 215 mm in size. The environmental reliability of the flexible detector were tested using thermal and conditions of 65°C at a relative humidity (RH) of 70%. Furthermore, temperature cycling between −20°C/+60°C was used to test the flexible detectors and which also shown acceptable passing results for commercialization. The preliminary studying results demonstrate the feasibility of a flexible X-ray imaging detector, which could have significant implications for the medical imaging industry.