Dynasil Corporation, parent company of USIC member Radiation Monitoring Devices (RMD), recently announced that RMD was granted eleven individual patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office during 2010. The patents were all related to new scintillation materials for improved nuclear material detection and medical imaging applications. The same technology that provides heightened sensitivity in security scanning system, also provides higher resolution medical imaging with lower radiation, helping doctors more accurately locate cancer cells for targeted therapies.
Even more recently, Dynasil noted that RMD was additionally granted U.S. patent claims for advances in a detector material capable of responding independently to both neutron and gamma radiation. This advancement is of critical national importance because of limited availability of Helium-3, a key component in the most commonly available technology for detecting neutrons in Homeland Security applications.
Dynasil has developed specialized production facilities in its crystal division in England, designed to make the crystals in large volumes in order to make this advanced detector technology available to government and commercial markets as soon as possible. With a long history of supplying detector material for radiation detection, screening and medical imaging, the English facility is expected to supply production volume shipments of the new radiation detector by September 30, 2011.
RMD has completed 2 GIPP projects partnering with Brookhaven National Lab, VNIIEF, the Institute of Solid State Physics, and the Konstantinov Institute of Nuclear Physics, exploring the use of other nuclear radiation detector material and the development of improved scanners using that material. USIC congratulates Radiation Monitoring Devices for its continuing achievements in developing new technologies and bringing them into the marketplace.