A Quick Refresher on EDXRF

Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) is a non-destructive analytical technique used to determine the elemental composition of various materials, ranging generally from Al – U (with higher end spectrometers pushing those boundaries). A sample is excited with a primary X-ray beam, which causes a secondary beam to be emitted (or fluoresced) which is characteristic of the elements present. EDXRF collects this secondary beam, measuring the energy of each of these emitted X-rays, and collecting the X-rays into a spectrum. This spectrum is then analyzed to enable precise identification and quantification of the elements. This method stands out for its versatility, allowing analysis of solids, liquids, and powders across a wide range of concentrations, from major components to trace elements. Its key advantages include rapid analysis times, minimal sample preparation, and the ability to analyze samples in their natural state, making EDXRF a valuable tool in fields such as material science, environmental testing, quality control, and archaeological studies.

High-quality X-ray tubes, like those developed by Micro X-Ray, are crucial for achieving accurate and reliable EDXRF results. They enable more precise elemental analysis by offering optimized flux, advanced cooling methods for longer tube life, and the flexibility to adapt to various analytical needs, thereby supporting a wide array of research and industrial applications.

The Perfect Balance: 50kV/50W

Achieving the ideal balance between adequate power for a robust secondary fluorescence while avoiding detector flooding is key in EDXRF. The 50kV/50W specification serves as a sweet spot for XRF tubes, ensuring clear, distinct spectral peaks for more reliable data in around 90 seconds or less. Some applications benefit from slightly higher voltages, and some applications benefit from higher powers, but the 50kV/50W XRF tube has proven to be a standard specification in EDXRF machines for many years.

Lightbright End Window Tube: Maximizing Precision

The Lightbright end window tube, designed for precision and efficiency, features a large cone angle an ideal takeoff angle to maximize usable flux. Ultra-thin window options, as thin as 50μm, reduce low energy absorption, capturing even the subtlest spectral lines. Its end window geometry facilitates close source/sample/detector arrangements, optimizing detection efficiency. Integrated o-ring grooves support helium or vacuum purge capabilities, maintaining spectral purity and minimizing background noise.

Mini-Focus Packaged Tube: Redefining Versatility and Reliability

Our mini-focus packaged tube has been designed with an industry-standard form factor, allowing for easy drop-in replacements in both laboratory and field settings. Thanks to a proprietary oil filling technique, it can be mounted in any orientation without arcing, ensuring consistent performance. The integration of a high voltage (HV) cable reduces failure risks by removing the high voltage well connection point, enhancing device reliability and enabling quick and easy maintenance.

SeeRay: Fast Focal Spot Stabilization and Detailed Spatial Resolution

The SeeRay stands out for its rapid spot stabilization time, ideal for use with X-ray optics. Compatible with our diamond anode technology and featuring spot sizes down to 50μm and power loading up to 1.5W/μm, it enables fast, spatially resolved EDXRF measurements when combined with polycapillary optics. This capability allows for quick and detailed elemental mapping, offering a considerable advantage in both industrial and academic applications.

Extended Lifetime and Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

A pivotal factor in the selection of X-ray tubes is their operational lifetime and the subsequent total cost of ownership (TCO). Both the Lightbright and SeeRay tubes feature direct anode cooling paths, while the Mini-Focus tube utilizes an efficient oil-to-brass cooling method. These cooling approaches significantly extend the service life of our tubes beyond that of competitive offerings. A longer service life not only means lower TCO but also fewer service visits, minimizing downtime and enhancing productivity. For a deeper dive into the longevity of our X-ray tubes, please refer to our detailed blog post on how long your X-ray tube will last.

Revolutionizing EDXRF with Micro X-Ray

Micro X-Ray is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of EDXRF analysis through technological innovation and excellence. Our Lightbright end window, Seeray, and mini-focus packaged tubes are tailored to meet the varied needs of the scientific community, enhancing precision, efficiency, and innovation in analysis.

Explore the potential of our advanced tube technologies for your EDXRF applications. With Micro X-Ray, embark on a journey towards groundbreaking scientific discovery, leveraging our cutting-edge solutions to shape the future of analysis.

Thank you for considering Micro X-Ray as your partner in advancing EDXRF analysis. We are eager to support your research and development efforts with our state-of-the-art technologies.

We are here to provide the tools and insights necessary for navigating the complexities of EDXRF analysis. For further information or to discuss how our technologies can cater to your specific research needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, let’s drive innovation and achieve exceptional breakthroughs in the field of scientific analysis.

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A traditional anode in an X-ray tube consists of a relatively large piece of copper, topped with a relatively thin brazed disk of some target material, often Tungsten. While effective, this design has limitations in power dissipation and achievable spot size. The entire power of the X-ray beam is being dumped into an area the diameter of the spot, and just a few microns thick. Because X-ray generation is a notoriously inefficient process, well over 99% of the beam power must be dissipated as heat in that small volume, then wicked away by the copper anode substrate. A standard Tungsten target, for example, can handle about 1W/μm of spot size before becoming overloaded. If this power loading is exceeded, the target can evaporate and pit in a matter of seconds.

Micro X-Ray’s innovative diamond anode change this dynamic, adding a diamond layer to the target assembly to effectively move heat out of the X-ray spot and in to the bulk copper anode. This unique anode design allows for up to 50% higher power loading when compared to a standard anode design. In the case of Tungsten, our diamond substrate enables power loading of up to 1.5W/μm, allowing brighter flux in a smaller spot than any other fixed anode tube on the market.

Microbox – Micro-Precision Imaging Redefined

In our Microbox product line, the integration of diamond substrates into the anode design has been a game-changer. This advancement enables up to 50% higher power loading in the focal spot compared to traditional copper anodes, yielding 7.5W of power in our 5μm focal spot.

Key Advantages of the Diamond Anode Microbox

• Ultra-Crisp Images: With focal spot sizes down to 5μm, the Microbox enables industry leading image clarity.
• Enhanced Efficiency: The superior thermal dissipation of diamond allows for more consistent and prolonged high-power operation, delivering 7.5W of power in the 5μm spot.
• Broad Application Spectrum: This level of precision and power opens new avenues in non-destructive testing, electronics inspection, and material science.

SeeRay – Powering High-Flux Applications and Unleashing Unprecedented Brightness in Compact Form

The SeeRay stands out for its ability to produce super bright 50μm spots running at 75W, a feat made possible by MXR’s diamond anode technology. This exceptional flux brightness, unusual for its size, is enables true market differentiation in microXRF and XRD machines.

Key Advantages of the Diamond Anode SeeRay

• Massive Flux Output: The combination of high power and an optic provides a flux that well exceeds expectations for a tube of this size.
• Versatility in Applications: Ideal for high-end research and industrial applications requiring intense brightness and precision.
• Sustainable and Efficient: The diamond substrate not only boosts performance but also contributes to longer lifespan and reduced operational costs.

Pioneering the Future of X-ray Technology

As we continue to celebrate our journey in the #MXRDecadeOfInnovation, the advancements in our Microbox and SeeRay products stand as testaments to Micro X-Ray’s commitment to pioneering the future of X-ray technology. By harnessing the unique properties of diamond substrates, we have not only overcome traditional limitations but also opened a new realm of possibilities in precision imaging and high-flux applications.

The Impact of Innovation

• Setting New Standards: Our breakthroughs in anode technology set new benchmarks in the industry, pushing the limits of what’s possible in compact, finely focused X-ray sources.
• Empowering Industries: From research labs to industrial quality control, our innovations empower professionals with tools that transform their capabilities and efficiency.
• Driving Forward: Each advancement is a step towards more sustainable, efficient, and powerful X-ray solutions, keeping us at the forefront of technological evolution.

Join Us on This Exciting Journey

We invite you to be a part of this exciting era of innovation. Explore how our cutting-edge X-ray solutions can elevate your work to new heights of precision and efficiency. Whether you are looking for advanced imaging capabilities with the Microbox or require the high-flux performance of the Seeray, our team is ready to assist you in finding the perfect solution.

Get in Touch

– Discover more about our products: Visit our website or contact our sales team at sales@microxray.com.

– Need assistance? Reach out to our support team at support@microxray.com or call us at 831-207-4900.

– Stay updated: Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news and innovations.

Let’s embrace the future of X-ray technology together. #MXRDecadeOfInnovation

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Most users of X-ray tubes intuitively understand that X-ray tube lifetime is finite, and that X-ray tubes are consumable items due to the lightbulb-like filament that is generally used as an electron source. One of the first questions when dealing with any consumable is, how long will it last? This question informs total cost of machine ownership, preventative maintenance schedules, and a number of other key decisions needed to accurately compare one source against another.

In today’s post, we’ll look at the common failure modes of X-ray tubes, what can be done to manage them, how long your tube might be expected to last in the field, and why it’s a surprisingly hard question to answer.

A Brief Review

X-ray tubes are vacuum devices, meaning they require a high vacuum to operate. This high vacuum is needed for high voltage insulation, but it is also useful in allowing the electrons to travel from the cathode side of the X-ray tube to the anode, in order to generate X-rays. With a lower quality vacuum, the journey from cathode to anode becomes more challenging for the electrons, and therefore the filament must be run harder. For more information on this phenomenon, please see our previous articles on how X-rays are generated.

All of Micro X-Ray’s X-ray tubes are sealed type X-ray tubes. Sealed tubes are (as the name suggests) completely vacuum sealed at manufacturing, and contain no user-serviceable parts. This makes an extremely compact, robust, and durable package compared to their open type counterparts.

Filament Failure

The first failure mode to explore is failure of the filament. Modern X-ray power supplies control the beam current by tightly controlling the current through the X-ray filament. As the filament current increases, more electrons are released from the filament itself, and as more electrons are available inside the tube, more of them cross the high voltage gap to the target material, increasing the beam current. Over time, this electron emission wears down the filament, leading to an eventual end of life failure where the filament breaks completely – just like an Edison lightbulb. The lower the filament current, the longer the X-ray tube will last. The effect is a classic exponential curve – as an example, the standard 1.7A MXR filament has an estimated life of 100,000,000 hours at 1.34A, dropping to just 10,000 hours when run at the filament current limit of 1.7A. If the filament is run over the limit, say at 2.2A, it would break in a matter of seconds.

Other electron sources, for example dispenser cathodes like those used in the Microbox, have an ever longer service life than a filament-based X-ray tube.

Vacuum Degradation

Vacuum degradation is the other main cause of X-ray tube end of life. The metal components inside the X-ray tube outgas over time; this is an unavoidable law of physics, and while MXR’s X-ray tubes are built and processed with an eye towards minimizing this outgassing and improving the quality of the vacuum before sealing, the nature of sealed tubes means that not only can no gasses enter the tube, but none can escape either. As the tube heats up, the rate of outgassing internally increases.

As the vacuum degrades (meaning the pressure increases inside the X-ray tube), several things start to happen concurrently. First, the high voltage stresses inside the tube increase, which can lead to increasing leakage current, instability, and eventually arcing.

In addition to leakage increasing, the electrons from the filament have a higher change of hitting gas molecules as they traverse the high voltage gap between the anode and cathode. If an electron hits a gas molecule, it is knocked off course and loses energy, so it may not hit the target and produce an X-ray. As the vacuum degrades, therefore, the filament will need to be run hotter to compensate for those lost electrons in order to maintain a constant beam current. Over time, this process runs away, and the filament will eventually exceed its limit and open.

Race to the Death

What we have is a race to the death. As the vacuum degrades, the filament needs to work harder to keep up. As the filament works harder, the tube heats up more which causes the vacuum to degrade faster. What will happen first, will the filament run so hot it burns itself out? Or will the tube vacuum deteriorate so much that the high voltage arcs to ground, causing internal damage. There’s no one right answer, it could be either. If you’re running low kV/high current, it’s likely that the filament will burn out first. If you’re running high kV/low current, it’s likely that arcing due to vacuum degradation will occur first.

So…How Long Will my X-ray Tube Last?

10,000 hours is a good starting point for a lifetime estimate. Unless you run it hot, in which case it can be significantly less. Or, if you keep it cool, it can last longer. And of course you can’t run the filament (or cathode) too hard. If you run the filament conservatively, and keep the tube cool, it could easily last for 10x the 10,000 hour rule of thumb or more.

In practice, MXR has X-ray tubes in the field that are over 10 years old. These are usually in lab environments with a controlled atmosphere, minimal duty cycles, and adequate heating while operating. If you treat your X-ray tube well, it can last a long, long time. On the other hand, if you run 24/7 in a non-climate controlled factory in a hot part of the world, your tube just isn’t going to last as long as in the laboratory use case.

What can I do?

You can keep your tube cool! There’s not much to do about the filament other than ensure it doesn’t exceed the filament current limit, but for most tubes, the filament can live into the millions of hours before being depleted from normal operating conditions. So we’re left to focus on the outgassing, which can be minimized by keeping the tube cool. The cooler the internal components are, the slower the rate of outgassing. With a properly cooled X-ray source running within its design specifications, the lifetime of the tube can reliably exceed 10,000 hours, and often much, much more.

Contact Miro X-Ray Today

As always, let’s talk about it. Our engineers are always happy to have a conversation about YOUR application to help pick the right tube, and provide recommendations for the right cooling system.

The post X-Ray Sources 101: How Long Will My X-ray Tube Last? appeared first on Micro X-Ray.

Introduction

Since our founding 10 years ago, Micro X-Ray has been at the forefront of providing high-quality, innovative X-ray solutions. Our journey has been marked by a deep commitment to excellence and a consistent focus on meeting the evolving needs of industry leaders.

At the core of our commitment is a dual focus: a drive to understand our customers’ use cases and provide the right X-ray source for every application, and an industry-leading 6-week lead time on all orders. These two pillars showcase our unmatched efficiency and deep dedication to customer needs.

A Decade of Innovation: Micro X-Ray’s Journey

Over the last decade, Micro X-Ray has carved a niche in the X-ray technology sector, standing out not as a newcomer, but as a seasoned innovator. Our journey has been fueled by a relentless pursuit of excellence and a keen understanding of the industry’s needs. This experience positions us uniquely to offer bespoke solutions that cater precisely to the demands of industry leaders.

Six Weeks to Success: Our Lead Time Commitment

Understanding the critical role of time in business operations, we have streamlined our processes to deliver on a key promise – a 6-week lead time for all new orders, and often as short as two weeks for small quantity orders. This rapid turnaround is not just a service feature; it’s a reflection of our operational efficiency and our commitment to keeping our clients’ projects on track.

This 6-week lead time pledge underscores our understanding of the market dynamics and our dedication to being a reliable partner to industry leaders. Whether it’s for a critical healthcare application or a time-sensitive industrial project, our clients can count on us for short, reliable lead times and the highest quality standards.

Vertical Integration: A Decade of Continuous Improvement

Our approach to minimizing lead times while maintaining the highest standards of quality and consistency in our products is through vertical integration. By constantly monitoring and improving every aspect of our production process and deploying automation everywhere we can, we ensure that each product leaving our facility meets our rigorous standards. This method has been a cornerstone of our operations for the past decade, allowing us to provide products that industry leaders can rely upon for their precision and reliability.

Adapting to Industry Needs: Tailored Solutions

Our ten years in the industry, combined with our deep bench of seasoned industry experts, have given us deep insights into the unique challenges and requirements of different sectors. Leveraging this expertise, we offer customized solutions that are not just effective but are also aligned with the specific needs of each industry leader we serve. Our ability to tailor our solutions has been a key factor in our enduring relationships with clients across the highly fragmented low power X-ray marketplace.

Conclusion

As we reflect on our ten-year journey, Micro X-Ray stands as a beacon of innovation and reliability in the X-ray technology sector. Our commitment to a 6-week lead time and customized solutions demonstrates our dedication to being a pivotal partner for industry leaders. We invite you to experience the Micro X-Ray difference and join the ranks of our satisfied clients.

If you’re ready to explore what Micro X-Ray can do for you, we encourage you to reach out. Our team is eager to discuss your specific needs, how we can tailor our solutions for you, and arrange a tour of our cutting-edge facility in California. Contact us today through our web form, send us an email at sales@microxray.com, or call us directly at 831-207-4900. Let’s embark on a journey of X-ray excellence together, and start the next Decade of Innovation together.

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When you’re using an X-ray tube, it’s important to set the right parameters. First, there’s the excitation voltage of the tube, usually expressed in kV. Next, there’s the beam current of the tube, usually expressed in mA. If you multiply the two together, you can get the X-ray tube’s power. (Need a refresher? Check out this article)

What is Filament Current, Anyway?

So that’s the excitation voltage and beam current, but most high voltage power supplies also have a filament current limit and filament current pre-heat. What are those, and how do they relate to the beam?

One trick: because kV is V*10^3, mA is A*10^-3, and power is P=V*A you can easily calculate power in your head because 10^3*10^-3 reduces to exactly 1, so the power of the tube is just the integer kV value times the integer mA value. A tube running at 50kV and 1mA, therefore, runs at 50*1=50W. A tube running at 25kV and 0.5mA is running at 25*0.5=12.5W.

To answer this question, we need to remember how X-ray tubes work. The beam isn’t controlled directly, but rather it’s generated when electrons at (or near) the ground potential see a high potential on the anode, and try to equalize the potential difference by accelerating towards that high potential. In filament-based X-ray tubes, those electrons are a result of thermionic emission of a filament, and the thermionic emission is created as a result of running a current through the filament itself, similar to a traditional Edison lightbulb. The more current running through the filament, the hotter the filament is and the more electrons are released through thermionic emission.

Filament Current Control

The filament current is tightly controlled by the power supply based on the HV and beam current demand. The higher the beam current demand, the higher the filament current runs. The higher the kV at a given beam current operating point, the lower the required filament current to achieve the beam current set point. Regulating these interdependent control loops is the job of the X-ray power supply, which generates the high voltage required to produce the demanded excitation voltage, and regulates the filament current in order to produce the demanded beam current.

In order to produce a cloud of electrons, the filament must be hot enough to overcome the work function of the filament and enter the thermionic emission region, but if it’s too hot the filament itself will sublimate and eventually fail. Because thermionic emission is exponential with temperature, even small changes of just a few thousandths of an amp in the filament can produce huge swings in the amount of electrons in the cloud, and therefore in the beam current. For most Micro X-Ray filament tubes, emission often starts at ~1.2A, and exceeding ~1.8A can cause the filament to break in a matter of seconds. For this reason, filament current control loops are generally very stable DC currents.

Because filament control loops are often quite slow as a way to preserve the life of the filament and prevent overshoot, X-ray power supplies come equipped with two important settings: filament pre-heat and filament maximum. The pre-heat holds the filament at some fixed current below the emission threshold, which helps to reduce start-up time when X-rays are demanded. The filament maximum prevents the power supply from applying more than a certain amount of current to the filament to ensure a long service life. For most Micro X-Ray tubes, 1.0A is the recommended pre-heat setting, and 1.7A is the recommended maximum current limit setting. These settings reduce turn-on time while preserving the life of the filament.

What Power Supply Should I Use?

Selecting a power supply that can provide a stable beam current, filament current, and high voltage is critical to ensuring a long service life for your X-ray source. An integrated solution like the Microbox provides all the needed control, with a simple digital interface and 24V input requirement. For stand-alone systems, Micro X-Ray is pleased to provide a variety of power supply solutions depending on your exact application requirements. Reach out today for more information.

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One of the most misunderstood aspects of X-ray tubes is how the electron beam is shaped internally, and what impact that has on the X-ray spot. As a rule of thumb, for spot sizes above approximately 50 microns, the electron beam can generally be passively focused through a combination of emitter geometry and smart electron gun design. For spot sizes below that 50 micron threshold, or for applications where the flux distribution within the spot is important, more active measures must be taken. In this case, tube designers often use a grid voltage which modifies the electrostatic field around the electron beam, causing the electrons to change their trajectory mid-flight.

Depending on the tube designer, these electron beam shaping devices may be called apertures, grids, or focusing optics (not to be confused with external optics which act on the X-ray beam). Depending on the tube design and spot size requirement, one or more focusing optic element may be required to achieve the customer’s required beam size and shape. It’s important to understand that these focusing optics don’t create new electrons or increase the total flux output of the tube in any way. Rather, they simply re-route the electron beam in flight so it lands in a different spot on the X-ray target than it otherwise would.

In the case of a Minifocus tube such as our Seeray, adding a single grid voltage can concentrate the flux into a smaller spot, which can be beneficial in certain applications. For instance, when coupling a Minifocus tube to an external polycapillary X-ray focusing optic, the addition of a single grid voltage inside the tube can help concentrate the available flux in the center of the spot, enabling more efficient use of the optic.

But What Does a Grid Actually Do?

Let’s take the example of a single grid on a Minifocus X-ray tube.  The cathode of the tube is ground-referenced, and the anode of the tube is at a high voltage. As electrons are emitted from the tube’s filament, they are effectively at a 0V potential. They “see” the high voltage of on the tube’s anode, and race towards it to equalize the potential difference. The stream of electrons flowing from the cathode to the anode forms the electron beam. Because these electrons are at 0V, we have the ability to shape them as they move towards the anode by manipulating the electrostatic field they fly through with a relatively low grid voltage. Using this principal, MXR is able to design the electrostatic field they pass through in order to manipulate their landing pattern on the target, which forms the X-ray spot.

First, let’s look at a visualization of a gridded Minifocus tube’s X-ray spot taken on a production tube at Micro X-Ray, using our pinhole spot photo measurement system with no grid voltage applied. We can distinctly see two lobes in the spot. The total intensity of the spot can be determined by summing the total number of counts in the image, 1.77e7.

As we increase the electrostatic field strength with a grid voltage of -20V, we can see the two lobes are merging into one as a result of the electrostatic fields acting on the electron beam, but the spot’s sides in the X axis are still quite sloped (these slopes are often called the “wings” of the spot). Note the total counts in the spot area remain unchanged.

At -40V, the X-ray spot is now a sharp spike, with very steep sides and an intense center. Note the total count rate still remains unchanged, despite a very different shape than the spot with a 0V grid value. We are not adding X-ray flux, we’re simply focusing it in the center of the spot.

And finally, at -60V, we can see the center intensity fall slightly as the wings of the spot increase – this tells us we’ve applied too much voltage to the grid. Again, the total flux intensity remains unchanged, but over focusing the beam results in a less than optimal distribution of the available flux.

Putting It All Together

In the GIF below, we’ve animated the grid voltage changes from 0V through -65V to show the impact of grid voltage on flux distribution. The ideal grid voltage is slightly different for each X-ray tube, and Micro X-Ray will provide you with the optimal grid voltage for your tube.

So what does it mean for you, and do you need a gridded X-ray tube? As always with X-ray tubes, it depends. A gridded tube isn’t better or worse than a non-gridded Minifocus tube, it just depends what your application requirements are. Many analytical applications don’t care about the spot size at all; as long as the cone angle illuminates a larger area than the largest collimator in the system, that’s good enough for the application. However, when high flux intensity in the center of the spot is important, there’s no substitute for a well designed electron beam focusing optic. If you’re using an external polycapillary optic, this increase in flux, combined with the total power of our Seeray X-ray tube can unlock flux intensity previously reserved for sources in the kW range, allowing ultra-fast micro XRF, and even enabling benchtop XRD from a X-ray source running at under 100W!

For More Information on Gridded Tubes

If you have any questions about our gridded tubes, or any tubes at all, please reach out today!

The post Operational Tips: Do I Need a Gridded Tube? appeared first on Micro X-Ray.

Physics of Bremsstrahlung Radiation

Bremsstrahlung radiation, also known as “braking radiation,” is a type of electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of charged particles, such as electrons, when they pass through the electric field of an atom in an X-ray tube’s target. In X-ray tubes, the charged particles, or electrons, are accelerated by a high voltage, usually in the range of 20 to 150 kV, and then collide with a target material, such as tungsten. These collisions result in the deceleration of the electrons, and the energy lost by the electrons is emitted as Bremsstrahlung radiation.

Briefly, Bremsstrahlung is different than characteristic radiation which is produced when one of the same electrons knocks an electron from an inner shell out of orbit. An electron from a higher shell jumps down to fill the gap, and the difference in energy between the shells is emitted as an X-ray. The energy of that X-ray is equal to the energy difference between the two shells.

The energy of the Bremsstrahlung radiation is directly related to the energy of the electrons, as well as the atomic number of the target material. The higher the energy of the electrons, the higher the energy of the emitted Bremsstrahlung radiation. Similarly, the higher the atomic number of the target material, the higher overall count rate of the emitted Bremsstrahlung radiation.

X-ray Imaging

Bremsstrahlung radiation is significant in X-ray imaging because it is the primary source of X-rays in X-ray tubes. The X-rays produced by Bremsstrahlung radiation are favorable for imaging purposes because they have a broad spectrum of energies, allowing for higher contrast images in materials with varying densities. This broad spectrum of energies is due to the fact that the electrons that produce the X-rays lose different amounts of energy as they pass through the target material, resulting in a wide range of X-ray energies.

The upper limit of the X-ray tube’s energy output is set by the excitation voltage of the source, and the lower limit is set by the inherent filtration of the tube, in the example below we see both the Bremsstrahlung generated at the target face, along with the output of the X-ray tube with the 254μm Be window’s inherent filtration taken into consideration.

The voltage applied to the X-ray tube and the choice of additional filtering materials are carefully chosen to produce X-rays with the desired energy spectrum for a given imaging sample. Often in imaging applications, the characteristic lines of the target material are filtered out to ensure a clean Bremsstrahlung radiation pattern for optimal imaging of the widest possible array of samples.

Summary

Bremsstrahlung radiation is a type of electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of charged particles, such as electrons, when they pass through the electric field of a heavy atom in an X-ray tube. It is the primary source of X-rays in X-ray tubes and plays a crucial role in X-ray imaging. By understanding the generation and properties of Bremsstrahlung radiation, we can better understand the workings of X-ray tubes and their applications in medical and industrial imaging.

If you have any questions about target materials, imaging applications, or X-rays in general, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today!

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Following an X-ray

Path of an X-ray from generation inside the X-ray tube to the X-ray detector, through an object

A Brief Probability Review

• An electron hitting the target has some probability of creating an X-ray photon, this is a constant based on target material and excitation voltage
• That X-ray photon has some probability of pointing in the right direction, this is a constant based on tube, object, and detector geometries
• That X-ray has some probability of hitting the detector, this is a constant based on the sample density in the X-ray’s path being absorbed or scattered by the sample,

Part 2, Coming Soon!

The post X-ray Sources 101: Taking Faster Images at Higher Resolution (Part 1) appeared first on Micro X-Ray.

Elements to be Measured

Primary X-ray Spectrum

Spectra from two different Lightbright tubes at 50kV with different target materials

Power Requirements & Target Durability

Conclusion

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