{"id":683,"date":"2025-07-16T12:58:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T16:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/bme\/?p=683"},"modified":"2025-09-24T11:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:45:27","slug":"one-glass-ceramic-sandwich-extra-x-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/bme\/news\/one-glass-ceramic-sandwich-extra-x-rays\/","title":{"rendered":"One Glass-Ceramic Sandwich, Extra X-Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-utkwds-paragraph-large wp-block-paragraph\">UTSI Researchers Patent New X-Ray Imaging Technique<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">University of Tennessee Space Institute Professor&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.utsi.edu\/people\/faculty\/jacqueline-anne-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jackie Johnson<\/a>, UTSI Adjunct Research Associate Professor&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.utsi.edu\/people\/faculty\/r-lee-leonard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">R. Lee Leonard<\/a>, UTSI Senior Research Associate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.utsi.edu\/beams\/faculty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chad Bond<\/a>, and their colleagues have secured a patent for a technology that will improve medical imaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their innovation improves x-ray imaging technology by placing a standard light detector between two panes of a scintillating glass ceramic. This novel \u201csandwich\u201d arrangement captures more information than the configuration currently used in x-ray imaging devices, improving image quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1edc6ba4 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xx-small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xx-small)\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-orange-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-orange-background-color has-background\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)\" \/>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scintillators Reveal the Unseen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson, Leonard, and Bond are members of the UTSI BEAMS lab, a multidisciplinary group investigating a variety of promising next-generation materials including scintillating glasses and glass ceramics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGlass is an old material still finding use in modern technology,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When struck with ionizing radiation, such as x-rays, scintillators spontaneously emit visible light. Crystalline scintillators are often used in x-ray imaging devices, where they are paired with photosensor arrays that translate the visible light into digital images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This flat panel detector (FPD) technology allows medical experts to quickly and accurately observe a patient\u2019s bone structure, monitor the spread of medicine in the body, or identify cancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, because an x-ray photon can only be recorded if it is absorbed by the scintillator, a large fraction of the x-ray beam\u2014more than a third of the radiation, in some cases\u2014will pass through an FPD undetected. As a result of this inefficiency, generating an acceptable image requires subjecting patients to significantly greater doses of radiation than necessary in an ideal system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1edc6ba4 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xx-small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xx-small)\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-orange-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-orange-background-color has-background\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small)\" \/>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scintillator Sandwich<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previous researchers tackling this problem have tried increasing the thickness of the FPD\u2019s scintillating screen. While a thicker screen does capture more of the x-ray beam, it also makes the final image blurrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, Johnson, Leonard, Bond, and their colleagues came up with the idea of a scintillator \u201csandwich.\u201d In this configuration, an FPD is placed between two layers of a scintillating material. The first scintillator and the photosensor act as a typical FPD, converting the typical amount of x-ray radiation to a digital image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the team\u2019s patented technology, the glass substrate that usually contains the FPD\u2019s electronics is replaced with a scintillating glass ceramic. This second scintillating layer absorbs a portion of the radiation that passed through the FPD and converts it to visible light, increasing the proportion of the x-rays that are captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mae\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/08\/ceramic-sample-.jpg\" alt=\"ceramic sample\" class=\"wp-image-1597\" style=\"width:960px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This more efficient system allows for improved image quality, reduced radiation dose to the patient, or some combination of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs a Tullahoma native, I\u2019m extremely proud of the important research happening at the Space Institute,\u201d said Bond. Some aspects of the newly patented technology are extensions of the work Bond conducted in the BEAMS lab while earning his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The patent application, which was approved on April 8, 2025, was facilitated by the UT Research Foundation. Other collaborators on the patent include retired State University of New York at Stony Brook researcher, and patent lead author, Anthony Lubinsky; Stony Brook clinical physicist Adrian Howansky; and Georgia Institute of Technology program manager M. Brooke Beckert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Izzie Gall (865-974-7203,&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:egall4@utk.edu\">egall4@utk.edu<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UTSI researchers patented a new glass-ceramic scintillator configuration that improves medical imaging without increasing radiation dosage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,123,125],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-news","category-research","tag-jackie-johnson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>One Glass-Ceramic Sandwich, Extra X-Rays - 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