July 14, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA July 14, 2000 |
| UVic engineers and a local R&D company team up to develop crystals for medical imaging equipment by Miguel Strother The world wants its medical equipment to run more efficiently and UVic researchers are leading the race to make it happen. UVic’s mechanical engineering department and Victoria-based Amistar Research and Development Inc. have secured $600,000 in combined research contract awards from the Canadian Space Agency microgravity science program to develop CdZnTe (CZT) crystals, key components in high-quality semiconductors, for commercial use in medical imaging and x/gamma-ray detection. The technology already available in these areas is limited due to the inability of existing equipment, such as medical imaging devices, to properly function at room temperature. As it stands, this type of equipment can only be used in an artificially cooled environment, which makes it difficult and costly to operate. Dr. Sadik Dost, chair of mechanical engineering, hopes that by securing funds and using the technology they’ve already developed, UVic and Amistar will be able to grow crystals that will allow medical imaging equipment to function at room temperature. Dost’s ultimate goal is to see the materials produced by UVic used in commercial production. “We’re ahead of many others in the world with our technology,” says Dost. “The technique we’re using to develop crystals is very unique. We know that there’s a big market for these materials.” Two state-of-the-art crystal growth facilities — the Liquid Phase Electroepitaxial (LPEE) facility at UVic and the Traveling Heater Method (THM) facility at Amistar — will be used to grow single-crystal materials. Under the supervision of Dost, UVic researchers have been involved in single-growth crystal Students in UVic’s mechanical engineering department will continue to be directly involved in upcoming research and are likely to reap financial benefits, in the form of extra research dollars, from their involvement with Amistar. “There’s a big market for medical imaging equipment and once we train students they will be available for work in commercial production,” says Dost. As for the development of CZT crystals with the properties required for the most recent project, Dost is working on a three-year timeline. “We’re hoping that at the end of three years we’ll see something solid, but these things don’t grow fast. There are many technical problems to be solved along the way.” Amistar has already developed a spin-off company, Redlen Crystals, to commercialize THM-grown CZT crystals for medical imaging. According to Dost, the UVic-based LPEE growth technique should also be ready for commercialization in the very near future. |