How to set up high-speed flash X-ray cinematography

2 Sep 2021 | Multi anode tubes, X-ray cinematography

A schematic image of the setup showing the Multi Anode tube, sample (projectile and ballistic protection plate), scintillator screen, mirror and high speed camera.

With the right setup, high-speed flash X-ray cinematography can be used to investigate ballistic impact behavior of target materials and structures at impact velocities up to 2000 m/s and higher.

High-speed flash X-ray cinematography components

A high-speed flash X-ray cinematography setup requires four main components. A multi-anode tube system that can deliver up to eight short-time X-ray pulses, a fast-decay scintillator screen with high X-ray conversion to visible light, an image intensifier to multiply the intensity of incoming light, and a multi-frame camera to capture the incoming light and save it as images. See the schematic image at the top of this page.

Using a Scandiflash MAT300 X-ray system and a scintillator screen, Norbert Faderl and Marvin Becker performed high-speed experiments with detection response times as fast as 3.5 microseconds. The setup is described in Proc. of SPIE 10999(2019)10990L-1. 

They used an eight-channel high speed X-Ray camera with a frame rate of 100,000 fps capable of recording 8 images of 20 ns exposure time for each frame during one impact event with a spatial resolution of 0.66 mm and a signal to noise ratio of 12.7 dB.

Signal-to-noise ratio

The signal-to-noise ratio is determined by the use of a step wedge. In the image above, the left side of the image shows the X-ray image of the step wedge. The resolution is determined by an IQI test gauge of convergent lines. The X-ray image to the right shows the converging lines. The red bar indicates the location of the line scan in the image below.

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About Scandiflash

For over 50 years, Scandiflash has been pioneering flash X-ray technology to help scientists and researchers around the globe to see the nearly impossible. Scandiflash Flash X-Ray Systems generate extremely short pulses used to capture dynamics in the harshest of conditions, ranging from indoor lab setups to outdoor large-scale firing ranges. The systems are modular and can be tailored to meet your requirements for number of pulses and peak energy conditions.