This report provides a detailed analysis of the opportunities for firms in, or about to enter, the radiation detection material sector. It provides a deep understanding of the commercial potential for the new materials and discussion of the strategies that are being deployed by firms active in this sector. It also includes a granular eight-year forecast of radiation detection materials broken out by material types and market application.

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Radiation Detection
Materials Markets--2011
Nano-386
Published August 2011
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Entire contents copyright NanoMarkets, LC. The information contained in this report is based
on the best information available to us, but accuracy and completeness cannot be
guaranteed. NanoMarkets, LC and its author(s) shall not stand liable for possible errors of fact
or judgment. The information in this report is for the exclusive use of representative
purchasing companies and may be used only by personnel at the purchasing site per sales
agreement terms. Reproduction in whole or in any part is prohibited, except with the express
written permission of NanoMarkets, LC.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 1 Page | i
E.1 Current Status of Radiation Detection Materials: Industry and Markets 1
E.1.1 Scintillation Radiation Detection Materials and Applications ........................................................... 2
E.1.2 Semiconducting Radiation Detection Materials and Applications ................................................... 6
E.2 Radiation Detection Materials Opportunity Profile ................................... 10
E.2.1 Opportunities for Low-Cost Radiation Detection Materials ............................................................ 11
E.2.2 Opportunities for High-Performance Radiation Detection Materials ............................................ 12
E.2.3 Longer-term Opportunities for Radiation Detection Materials ...................................................... 14
E.3 Key Firms to Watch ........................................................................................... 15
E.4 Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts for Radiation Detection Materials .. 16
Chapter One: Introduction ....................................................................................... 21
1.1 Background to This Report.............................................................................. 21
1.1.1 Scintillations and Semiconductors ..................................................................................................... 21
1.1.2 9/11 and After: Current Prospects and Markets for Radiation Detection Materials ............... 22
1.1.2 Imaging and Other Markets ............................................................................................................... 24
1.2 Objective and Scope of this Report............................................................... 25
1.3 Methodology of this Report ............................................................................ 25
1.4 Plan of this Report ............................................................................................ 26
Chapter Two: Current and Future Factors Shaping the Radiation Detection
Materials Market .......................................................................................................... 27
2.1 Application Trends Impacting Demand for Novel Radiation Detection
Materials ..................................................................................................................... 27
2.1.1 Medical .................................................................................................................................................. 28
2.1.2 Domestic Security ................................................................................................................................ 31
2.1.3 Military................................................................................................................................................... 36
2.1.4 Nuclear Power ...................................................................................................................................... 38
2.1.5 Geophysical Applications .................................................................................................................... 40
2.1.6 Other Applications ............................................................................................................................... 41
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2.2 Industry Structure Analysis from a Materials Perspective ...................... 42
2.2.1 Current and Future Materials Requirements for Device Makers ................................................... 45
2.2.2 Market Developments and Trends at the Crystal Growers ............................................................ 47
2.2.3 Opportunities for Suppliers of Raw Chemicals in the Radiation Detection Materials Space ..... 48
Page | ii
2.3 Analysis of Key R&D Trends in Radiation Detection Materials ............... 49
2.4 Key Points Made in this Chapter .................................................................... 51
Chapter Three: Radiation Detection: Standard and Emerging Materials ....... 54
3.1 The Future of Sodium Iodide in Radiation Detection ............................... 54
3.2 Market Opportunities for Newer Scintillation Radiation Detection
Materials ..................................................................................................................... 55
3.2.1 Lanthanum Bromide-Based Materials ............................................................................................... 56
3.2.2 Cesium Iodide-Based Materials ......................................................................................................... 58
3.2.3 Strontium Iodide-Based Materials ..................................................................................................... 60
3.2.4 Fluoride Salt Scintillation Materials ................................................................................................... 61
3.2.5 Oxide-Based Scintillation Materials ................................................................................................... 62
3.2.6 Silicate-Based Scintillation Materials ................................................................................................. 66
3.2.7 Yttrium-Based Scintillation Materials ................................................................................................ 67
3.2.8 Nanocrystalline Scintillation Materials............................................................................................... 69
3.2.9 Plastic and Organic Polymer-Based Scintillation Materials ............................................................ 71
3.3 Market Opportunities for Semiconductor Radiation Detector Materials
...................................................................................................................................... 73
3.3.1 Ge- and Si-Based Materials ................................................................................................................ 73
3.3.2 Cadmium Telluride, and Cadmium Zinc Telluride-Based Materials .............................................. 76
3.3.3 Gallium Arsenide-Based Materials ..................................................................................................... 78
3.3.4 Indium Phosphide-Based Materials ................................................................................................... 80
3.3.5 Aluminum Antimonide, Mercury Iodide and Other High Temperature Semiconductor Radiation
Sensitive Materials ......................................................................................................................................... 81
3.4 Other Radiation Sensitive Materials ............................................................. 83
3.4.1 Silicon Carbide ..................................................................................................................................... 83
3.4.2 Gallium Nitride ..................................................................................................................................... 84
3.4.3 Neutron Detectors ............................................................................................................................... 85
3.5 Key Points Made in this Chapter .................................................................... 86
Chapter Four: Eight-Year Forecasts for Radiation Detector Materials ........ 89
4.1 Forecasting Methodology ................................................................................ 89
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4.1.1 Data Sources ........................................................................................................................................ 90
4.1.2 Roadmap for Radiation Detector Materials Growth ........................................................................ 91
4.2 Eight-Year Forecast for Radiation Detector Materials ............................. 91
4.2.1 Forecast by Radiation Detection Application ................................................................................... 99 Page | iii
Acronyms and Abbreviations Used in this Report .......................................... 129
About the Author .................................................................................................... 130
List of Exhibits
Exhibit E-1: Worldwide Radiation Detection Revenues ($ millions).................................................... 17
Exhibit E-2: Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume ........................................................................... 19
Exhibit E-3: Worldwide Radiation Detector Revenues by Application ($ Millions) ................................. 20
Exhibit 4-1: Worldwide Radiation Detection Revenue ($ Millions) ...................................................... 92
Exhibit 4-2: Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume ........................................................................... 92
Exhibit 4-3: Worldwide Scintillation Detector Revenue by Materials Type ( $ Millions) ......................... 94
Exhibit 4-4: Worldwide Scintillation Detector Volumes by Materials Type ........................................... 95
Exhibit 4-5: Worldwide Semiconductor Detector Revenue by Materials Type ($ Millions) ..................... 96
Exhibit 4-6: Worldwide Semiconductor Detector Volume by Materials Type (Thousands of cm 2) .......... 96
Exhibit 4-7: Cost per cm3 of Scintillation Materials (Dollars per cm3) ................................................. 98
Exhibit 4-8: Cost of Various Semiconducting Detector Materials (Dollars per cm 2) .............................. 98
Exhibit 4-9: Worldwide Radiation Detector Revenues by Application ($ Millions) ................................100
Exhibit 4-10: Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume by Application ..................................................101
Exhibit 4-11: NaI Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ......................................................................102
Exhibit 4-12: NaI Volume (millions of cm3) by Application ................................................................103
Exhibit 4-13: CsI Crystalline Revenue by Application ($Millions) ......................................................104
Exhibit 4-14: CsI Crystalline Volume (millions of cm3) by Application ................................................105
Exhibit 4-15: CsI Thin-film Revenue by Application ($ Millions of Dollars) .........................................106
Exhibit 4-16: CsI Thin-Film Volume (millions of cm2) by Application..................................................107
Exhibit 4-17: Lanthanum-Based (LaBr3/LaCl3) Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ............................107
Exhibit 4-18: Lanthanum-Based (LaBr3/LaCl3) Volume (millions of cm3) by Application ......................108
Exhibit 4-19: Other Crystalline Simple Salt Detectors Revenue by Application ($ Millions) .................109
Exhibit 4-20: Other Crystalline Simple Salt Detectors Volume (Millions of cm3) by Application ............109
Exhibit 4-21: Oxide-Based Detectors Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ..........................................110
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Exhibit 4-22: Oxide-Based Detectors (BGO/PbWO4/etc) Volume (Millions of cm 3) by Application ........111
Exhibit 4-23: Silicate-Based (LSO/BSO/etc) Revenue by Application (Millions of Dollars) ..................112
Exhibit 4-24: Silicate Based (LSO/BSO/etc) (Millions of cm3) Volume by Application .........................112
Exhibit 4-25: Yttrium-Based Scintillation Materials Revenue by Application (Millions of Dollars) .........113 Page | iv
Exhibit 4-26: Yttrium-Based Scintillation Materials (Millions of cm 3) Volume by Application ...............114
Exhibit 4-27: Plastic/Polymer-Based Scintillation Materials Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ..........115
Exhibit 4-28: Plastic/Polymer Based Scintillation Materials (Thousands of cm 2) Volume by Application 115
Exhibit 4-29: Nanocrystalline/Nanowire/etc Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ...............................116
Exhibit 4-30: Nanocrystalline/Nanowire/etc Volume (Thousands of cm 2) by Application ....................117
Exhibit4-31: HPGe and Si Revenue by Application ($Millions) ..........................................................118
Exhibit 4-32: HPGe and Si (Thousands of cm2) by Application ..........................................................118
Exhibit 4-33: CdSe/CdTe/CdZnTe Revenue by Application ($ Millions) .............................................119
Exhibit 4-34: CdSe/CdTe/CdZnTe (Thousands of cm2) by Application ...............................................120
Exhibit 4-35: Gallium Arsenide Revenue by Application ($ Millions) .................................................121
Exhibit 4-36: Gallium Arsenide (Thousands of cm2) by Application....................................................121
Exhibit 4-37: Aluminum Antimonide Revenue by Application ($ Millions) ..........................................122
Exhibit 4-38: Aluminum Antimonide (Thousands of cm2) and other High Temp Semiconductors by
Application ...........................................................................................................................123
Exhibit 4-39: Other Room Temperature Semiconducting Revenue (Millions of Dollars) .....................124
Exhibit 4-40: Other Room Temperature Semiconducting Detectors by Volume (Thousands of cm 2) ....125
Exhibit 4-41: Worldwide Radiation Detector Revenue by Region (Millions of Dollars) .........................127
Exhibit 4-42: Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume by Region (Thousands of cm 2) ..........................127
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Executive Summary
E.1 Current Status of Radiation Detection Materials: Industry and Markets
Page | 1
Radiation detection materials are a category of materials that represent a sector poised to
maintain and moderately increase the steady growth of the past five-ten years. This market,
in fact, is projected to experience steady growth for the foreseeable future based on two key
application areas: domestic security and medical imaging. While the growth trend is stable
with respect to present materials, the demands of next-generation medical imaging, the
switch from film to digital for x-ray imaging, and the increased isotope detection and overall
monitoring needs of the domestic security sector will require both expansion of the capacity
of present materials and the introduction of new materials with higher performance at a
reasonable price point.
These key markets will support the majority of growth in the radiation detection materials
area over the next five-eight years. While current materials such as NaI, BGO, LYSO, silicon
and germanium are employed in many applications, they are all less than ideal for many
current and proposed new end uses. The needs of domestic security and nuclear medicine
diagnostics for both high performance and higher sensitivity for some applications, and the
need for less sensitive low cost solutions for pervasive monitoring on the other hand, present
a fertile market for new radiation detection materials.
The major radiation detection materials in the market place are either scintillation-based or
semiconductor-based. Scintillation materials are crystals that emit a flash of light when
excited by radiation. The light is then detected with a photomultiplier tube. NaI is the
dominant scintillation material used today. Other simple salts (mostly iodides), BGO
(Bi3Ge4O12), PVT (polyvinyl toluene), and LYSO (cerium doped lutetium yttrium orthosilicate)
are also widely used. Scintillation-based radiation detectors are currently the only practical
solution from a cost perspective for large area or array detectors used for medical imaging
and stand-off security applications, but improvements in their resolution, efficiency and
sensitivity are widely desired by their user base.
Semiconductor based radiation detectors are the other major class of radiation detection
materials. Silicon and high purity germanium (HPGe) are the dominant detector materials in
this class. While semiconductor detectors have much improved resolution and are the only
solution available for many high performance applications, their cost is more than ten times
that of most scintillation materials and they require mechanical cooling or cooling in liquid
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nitrogen for functionality. While extreme cooling requirements are not an issue for laboratory
applications, mobile and field applications requiring high resolution are in desperate need of a
low cost, room temperature, high resolution solution capable of isotope detection. CdZnTe is
showing promise as a room temperature radiation detector and several devices are in the Page | 2
marketplace, but CdZnTe crystal growth to achieve the large single crystals necessary for large
scale production at reasonable cost has proven an elusive goal.
Through the 1990s, work to understand the physics of new scintillation and semiconductor
materials proceeded at a relatively leisurely pace and was confined largely to the academic
world, as the development of new materials and engineering of these materials into products
was not economically justified by the level of commercial demand (with the exception of
medical imaging, where there was enough demand to justify some movement to develop new
materials).
The entire landscape for radiation detection materials changed after 9/11, however, when the
threat of stateless actors attacking the U.S. or other nations with either a nuclear device or an
improvised radiological weapon (dirty bomb) became a viable threat. In response to this new
threat, the U.S. government implemented laws and policies requiring the placement of
radiation detection equipment at all ports of entry and the availability of mobile and fixed
detection equipment for first responders at home and in countries that were targets for
international terrorism. In addition, programs such as the U.S. Megaports Initiative seek to
place radiation detection equipment at foreign ports in addition to U.S. ports of entry.
E.1.1 Scintillation Radiation Detection Materials and Applications
Sodium Iodide: Thallium activated NaI(Tl) was discovered over 50 years ago and is the
dominant scintillation material used today because of its relatively good performance at an
extremely low price point. It has excellent light yield and its luminescence spectrum is well
matched to current photomultiplier tubes. The disadvantages of NaI(Tl) are its hygroscopic
nature, sensitivity to physical and thermal shock and level of resolution, which is not enough
for reliable isotope identification. NaI is widely used in security portals of all sizes, medical
applications, dosimeters, well logging, nuclear plant monitoring, and high energy physics
research. And while many new materials will take a greater share of the overall radiation
detection materials market, NanoMarkets believes that the overall growth of the market will
be so brisk in domestic security, military applications and medical imaging that the prospects
for NaI(Tl) are quite positive for the foreseeable future.
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Lanthanum Bromide: To meet the higher resolution requirements of next generation medical
imaging devices and for isotope detection, replacement materials have been investigated.
Lanthanum Bromide (LaBr3) was the first scintillation material on the market with better
resolution than NaI. One drawback is the intrinsic radioactivity of 138La, which reduces Page | 3
resolution below 100 keV and makes it less attractive for lower energy sensing applications.
Projected markets for LaBr3 include the medical imaging area as well as detectors for
improved radiation detection at a distance. The U.S. Navy is currently investigating the use of
lanthanum bromide scintillation materials as part of their naval research maritime weapons of
mass destruction detection program. Adoption of LaBr 3 has been slowed, however, because
of the high cost of quality LaBr3 crystals. Additionally, Saint-Gobain holds many of the key
patents for the lanthanum halogen series (LaBr3, LaCl3, etc), and NanoMarkets is uncertain
whether this situation will accelerate or retard the price reductions necessary for enabling
widespread adoption of LaBr3.
Cesium Iodide: Cesium iodide (CsI) is a scintillation material that looks to have a bright future
for growth. It is a likely substitute for NaI in applications where the shock sensitivity and
hygroscopic nature of NaI are drawbacks. CsI is not hygroscopic, is much less shock sensitive
and has similar resolution to NaI (5 percent lower). Its higher stopping power reduces the
form factor for similar detection sensitivity, and the smaller form factor has already been
exploited for use in mobile detection systems. And behind NaI(Tl), Cesium Iodide is one of the
most commonly used materials for gamma radiation detection. Because it does not need to
be in a sealed container, it is the preferred material when both high and low energy gamma
rays are of interest.
While CsI crystals will enjoy steady growth, NanoMarkets predicts that CsI thin films for x-ray
imaging are likely to be its highest growth market in the near term as x-ray medical imaging
transitions from film to digital. X-ray detectors using thin-film CsI consist of a flat panel of
amorphous Silicon (a-Si) along with a thin film coating of CsI. The X-rays cause a scintillation
event in the CsI, and the contrast of these events are transferred to the amorphous Silicon flat
panel where they are collected and turned into a digital image. CsI flat panel x-ray detectors
have been demonstrated to be of better contrast and resolution than fifth-generation storage
phosphor systems. Early systems were not cost competitive, but prices have dropped in half
over the past five years and are NanoMarkets expects them to drop in half again over the next
five years.
Strontium Iodide: Strontium iodide (SrI2) is another new radiation detection material that has
better resolution than NaI(Tl). It is newer than lanthanum bromide and has not yet
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established a market presence, but NanoMarkets believes it has many attractive properties
that make it a material to watch going forward.
Strontium Iodide doped with Europium (SrI2(Eu)) has a demonstrated resolution of ~
Page | 4
2.6 percengt at 662 keV. This resolution makes it a possible candidate for isotope
detection.
Early work with the material indicates that crystal growth is relatively straight forward.
If SrI2(Eu) can be grown in volume easily, the material should have a very bright future.
However, most work to date has been done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL),
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL)
and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Domestic Nuclear Detection Office in
conjunction with Radiation Monitoring Devices of Watertown, Mass, so it remains to be seen
if the material can be manufactured in volume. If it can, we believe that this substance has
the potential to be a significant new entrant in the scintillation materials area.
Other Halides: Other materials such as lead fluoride are used mainly as Cherenkov detectors
and in other high energy physics applications. Barium and calcium fluoride detectors are also
commercially available. Barium fluoride is attractive for some applications because of its high
density and high time resolution. Calcium fluoride is being investigated for x-ray imaging.
Oxides: Oxides represent another class of scintillation materials that in general are not quite
as good as NaI(Tl) from the perspective of light output or resolution, but compare favorably to
NaI(Tl) in terms of thermal and mechanical shock and additionally are easy to manufacture at
an attractive price point. The engineering and manufacturing advantages of the oxide
scintillators supersede the better performance of NaI(Tl) for certain applications. Bismuth
germanium oxide (BGO), lead tungstate (PbWO4), cadmium tungstate (CdWO4), and zinc
tungstate (ZnWO4), are typical of commercially available oxide scintillators. The resolution of
these materials is in the 8-to-10 percent range for 662 keV radiation. The high density of
these materials gives them good stopping power and good photon efficiency per unit volume.
This class of crystals has found applications in energy physics, nuclear physics, space physics,
nuclear medicine and medical imaging, geological prospecting and other industries.
Plastics and Organic Polymers: Plastic and organic polymer-based materials represent the
lowest cost, lowest performance type of scintillation material. They are extremely cheap to
manufacture but have almost no ability to resolve between different types of radiation. Their
ability to differentiate between natural sources of radiation such as ceramics and radiological
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threats is also limited and results in a high false positive alarm rate when they are used in
portal applications.
All of the organic and plastic scintillation materials are based on aromatic compounds that
Page | 5
fluoresce when radiation interacts with the pie orbitals in the double and triple bonds of such
materials. Organic scintillators are either dissolved in a solvent or polymer matrix.
Polymerized polyvinyl toluene (PVT) is the most common solid solvent system for organic
scintillators. Most of the recent work on organic scintillators has centered on loading the
material with higher Z metal centers to improve energy resolution. While some of the work is
promising, none of the improved resolution materials are currently available in high volume in
the commercial marketplace.
Silicates: Silicate-based scintillation materials represent a class of materials that NanoMarkets
believes is set for robust growth during the period covered by this report. Lutetium silicate
Lu2SiO5(Ce) or LSO and gadolinium orthosilicate (Gd2SiO5) (GSO) are of note as they are
beginning to replace BGO in many applications. LSO is one of several rare earth orthosilicate
scintillation materials that is currently used extensively in radiation detection applications.
LSO and GSO both have good light yield, good energy resolution, good chemical and radiation
stability, short luminescence, and high density. Less attractive properties for LSO are its
strong non-linear light yield and radioactive contamination.
Yttrium silicates are also expected by NanoMarkets to grow faster than the market. While
small crystal growth techniques are well understood, however, to be economically viable,
growth techniques for larger crystals will have to be developed.
YAP (YAl03/yttrium aluminum perovskite) and YAG (Y3Al5O12/yttrium aluminum garnet) were
both developed from known laser materials by doping them with Cerium. Both YAP and YAG
have resolutions slightly better than NaI(Tl) and are mechanically rugged. Current uses for
YAP include high resolution alpha spectrometers. The newest Yttrium based scintillation
material is cerium-doped gadolinium yttrium gallium aluminum garnet, which has a chemical
formula of (Gd,Y)3(G,Al)5O12. It is generally referred to GYGAG(Ce). GYGAG(Ce) and was
developed at LLNL. It is not grown from a melt as most scintillation material are, but is first
cast, then sintered, then processed in a high temperature, high pressure argon atmosphere to
remove residual porosity. While not widely used for scintillation materials, this isostatic
technique has been employed commercially in the manufacture of YAG laser elements and
transparent armor (aluminum oxynitride). Though it is not commercially available yet, the
performance of GYGAG(Ce) in the lab approaches that of LaBr3, so if it can be commercialized
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at a lower price point than LaBr3, NanoMarkets believes it will be a material to track closely as
it comes to market.
Nanocrystals: Further out on the horizon, nanocrystalline materials may begin to have an
Page | 6
impact on the market late in the period covered by this report. As particle sizes shrink below
100 nm, quantum effects can cause dramatic shifts in optical properties compared to the bulk.
Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is the most studied of these materials. It is likely that similar
techniques could be used to manipulate the band structure of scintillation materials to
improve their properties. Some work on the synthesis of nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO),
LSO, and ZnWO4 is ongoing at various universities, but no details on their scintillation
properties have been reported to date.
E.1.2 Semiconducting Radiation Detection Materials and Applications
The highest performance radiation detection material currently available is high purity
germanium (HPGe), and it will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. Currently, it is the
only radiation detection source that can reliably identify radioisotopes from their passive
gamma emissions. The resolution of current high-performance HPGe detectors is 20 to 30
times that of NaI(Tl) (resolution down to 0.1 percent). The key application from a domestic
security perspective for HPGe is as an energy sensitive detector for radioisotope identification.
The well-known drawbacks of HPGe are its cryogenic requirements and the highly accurate
supporting electronics necessary to take advantage of its high sensitivity. HPGe also exhibits
low radiation resistance compared to scintillation detectors and can be damaged when
exposed to very high energy ionizing radiation. The electronics issues have largely been solved
as high-performance, low cost digital signal processers have become available. The low
temperature requirement is still an issue, but has been improved as small low power (around
15 watts) electromechanical cryogenic coolers have come on the market. While expensive,
HPGe has been demonstrated as effective for cargo screening with isotope identification
capability superior to traditional portal detectors. Our opinion is that HPGe will have
competition from high temperature semiconductor materials for mobile and field
applications, but no new materials will challenge it for the highest resolution applications.
Cadmium compounds: While HPGe will retain its dominance for ultra high-resolution
applications, NanoMarkets believes that new materials with resolutions high enough for
isotope detection that functions at room temperature will be the significant growth area for
semiconductor radiation detectors. Two of the most studied compounds that are poised for
growth are cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CdxZn1-xTe, CZT). If current
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crystal growth issues and the resultant high costs can be addressed, these materials should
experience robust growth throughout the reporting period.
CdTe has been investigated as a room temperature gamma ray detector since the mid-1960s.
Page | 7
It is typically grown using vertical zone melt methods or Bridgeman methods, but techniques
to grow large single crystals needed for large volume low cost production have been
extremely difficult to achieve.
CdTe detectors are commercially available, however, and are used in some medical
instrumentation, miniaturized nuclear fuel monitoring probes, capillary electrophoresis
detectors, portable dosimeters and some x-ray and gamma ray imaging applications.
CdxZn1-xTe (CZT) was discovered in 1992 as part of work to improve the quality of CdTe. The
addition of Zn to the melt of Cd and Te during growth helps improve the dislocation density,
which results in higher quality single crystal substrates. Like CdTe, crystal growth costs and
engineering for cadmium zinc telluride are the chief limiting factors to widespread use.
While work to generate large single crystals of CdxZn1-xTe in high yield at low cost has been
slow and frustrating, recent efforts have achieved promising results. Traveling heater growth
processes have been able to produce acceptable-sized single crystals in large volumes for
medical imaging and domestic security applications. CZT-based solutions for isotope
identification for hand-held dirty bomb detection, stand-off detection and high-speed
baggage scanning equipment are all now commercially available. They have been able to
measure the ratio of 235U to 238U in samples to determine enrichment of uranium to within
10 percent at room temperature. NanoMarkets believes that CZT also has significant potential
in medical imaging. Because of its improved sensitivity, it offers a means to reduce the dose
of radioactive imaging agent used for patients, shorter imaging times and higher image
resolution.
Gallium Arsenide: Gallium arsenide (GaAs) also functions at room temperature. Its key
advantage is that it has the highest electron mobility at room temperature of all of the
common semiconductor radiation detection materials. GaAs is also widely used in the
semiconductor industry and thus single crystal substrates are readily available.
The initial work on GaAs for radiation detection applications was done in the early 1960s and
this substance was the first semiconductor to demonstrate high-resolution gamma ray
detection at room temperature. Improvement over the initial detectors has been relatively
slow, however, as germanium became the focus of semiconductor radiation detector work.
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While the substrate is widely available, thick epitaxial films are required for acceptable
efficiency and improvements in high deposition rate epitaxial deposition techniques will have
to be implemented to enable low cost, high-performance detectors. The preferred route for
commercial detectors at this point is bulk grown semi-insulating (SI) GaAs as a detector Page | 8
instead of liquid phase epitaxial films. While most likely limited in volume compared to other
applications, markets for GaAs have been reported such as adoption as an x-ray imaging pixel
array, as pixel arrays for thermal neutron imaging, and in high speed radiation pulse detectors.
NanoMarkets believes that the cost of current GaAs detectors and the associated processing
requirements will probably limit their use to some low energy gamma spectrometry
applications, high speed radiation pulse detectors, and some x-ray spectrometry applications.
Indium Phosphide: Indium phosphide (InP) is a III-V compound semiconductor with a
zincblende structure. It can be grown as single crystals by standard techniques that can be cut
into large area wafers similar to what is done with silicon for CMOS applications. The band
gap of 1.35 eV (compared to 1.1 eV for silicon and 0.67 for germanium) indicates that it
should be a much lower noise detector than Si or Ge. Early work on InP centered on Fe doped
InP, which demonstrated a low charge-collection for highly doped Fe. Low doped Fe had the
drawback of low resistivity. Work is ongoing to improve InP purity and improve Fe doping
uniformity and profiles for potential applications in room temperature alpha detectors.
Other potential room temperature semiconductor materials: Other materials on the horizon
that may have applications as room temperature semiconducting radiation detection
materials include mercury iodide, thallium bromide, and aluminum antimonide.
Mercury iodide( HgI2) is a semiconducting material that has been investigated since the early
1970s as a room temperature gamma ray detector. It is limited to temperatures below 130°C
due to irreversible phase changes. Its resolution, ease of synthesis and ability to work at room
temperature has led to commercial applications in medical instrumentation, x-ray astronomy
applications, and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. While it has a commercial presence,
NanoMarkets does not expect mercury iodide to grow in excess of the market.
Cadmium selenide (CdSe) is another possible room temperature gamma ray and x-ray
detector, but current crystal growth techniques result in high defect levels and substantial
hole trapping, which limits it to low energy gamma spectroscopy at the present. There is
some work on CdxZn 1-xSe alloys that can be made with an increased band gap and decreased
leakage currents. No commercial devices are currently available.
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Gallium selenide (GaSe) was first studied as a possible room temperature radiation detector in
the 1970’s, but crystal growth techniques have not been found that can produce defect-free
crystals suitable for commercial applications. Additionally, its resolution may not be high
enough for isotope detection at room temperature. Page | 9
Thallium bromide (TlBr) has also been investigated as a room temperature gamma ray
detector, but work in the 1980s showed surprisingly low resolution. The material was revisited
in the late 1990s and resolutions less than 5 percent were achieved at room temperature.
While this level is acceptable, it must be further improved to be effective in an isotope
detection role.
Aluminum antimonide (AlSb) is a new substance that may have significant potential as a room
temperature radiation detection material. It was initially investigated based on theoretical
studies of potential radiation detection materials and most of the work has been conducted at
LLNL. While the synthetic techniques for production of contaminate-free crystals are still
being perfected initial studies have demonstrated resolution for the 133 keV peak of 210P
around 2.5 percent. Current devices, however, suffer from incomplete charge collection due
to crystal imperfections and contaminants in the crystal. Work is ongoing to improve the
charge collection and resolution issues before prototypes will be available.
In addition, as bulk crystal synthesis may be problematic, alternative synthetic routes are
being investigated. Synthesis of AlSb nanowires by electrodeposition may provide a route
around many of the issues that have made growth of crystals by traditional means
challenging. Initial work in the lab has demonstrated that electrodeposition in a porous
template such as Al2O3 or TiO2 can result in a continuous material in the host material pores
and a means to a potential 3D sensor. Work on such nanowires is in its infancy, but if some of
the work on nanowires in other fields can be leveraged, it may be possible to build regular
arrays of highly pure AlSb capable of room temperature radiation detection.
Carbides and nitrides are also classes of semiconducting materials with potential as room
temperature radiation detectors. Silicon carbide is a well known and commercially available
material that has been used as a radiation dose meter in harsh environmental applications. It
has been demonstrated that off-the-shelf Silicon carbide ultraviolet photodiodes can be used
to measure gamma dose rates over a range of six orders of magnitude and at high
temperatures (up to 200°C). One weakness of Si and Ge are their susceptibility to damage at
high radiation levels. SiC is a good potential substitute for high radiation applications for
several reasons:
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SiC has a large band gap and high atomic displacement threshold, which improves
radiation hardness,
SiC has high electron and hole mobility, allowing fast signal collection, and
SiC has a high resistivity so no dopants are needed. Page | 10
Gallium nitride (GaN) is another wide band gap semiconductor that has been investigated as a
radiation detector. It is currently widely used for LED’s and laser diodes. Because of this
experience with the material and its high radiation resistance and chemical stability GaN is
being investigated as a radiation detection material. Like SiC, gallium nitride could potentially
replace Si and Ge in applications where its improved radiation hardness is an advantage. In
fact, GaN looks very promising in improved tracking detectors for high energy physics where Si
and Ge suffer damage issues. In addition, GaN can be further radiation hardened (over an
order of magnitude) by electrochemically roughening the surface of the detector.
E.2 Radiation Detection Materials Opportunity Profile
Opportunities abound for new radiation detection materials with improved properties
compared to currently available scintillation and semiconductor products. No current
material meets all of the needs of current applications. Resolution, efficiency, sensitivity and
cost are areas of need for almost all applications. Semiconductor detectors require
improvement in room temperature service, higher availability and robustness and overall
sensitivity and performance. For scintillation detectors higher light output is a key need, as
are better linearity, energy resolution and decay times. Reduced cost and simplified
fabrication techniques are areas for improvement for nanocomposites and ceramics.
Applications for radiation detection materials can generally be broken down into low cost
solutions and high-performance solutions. Domestic security is a major user of both types.
For initial screening, a variety of plastic and NaI detectors are used. For further investigation,
semiconductor-based solutions with higher resolution are typically utilized.
In the medical imaging market, the lower cost materials dominate the landscape. The major
growth markets in this area include thin-film scintillators for x-ray detectors as well as higher
performance large scintillation crystals for radiological imaging applications. NanoMarkets
expects the overall market for radiological imaging needs to increase more than 50 percent in
the next six years.
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E.2.1 Opportunities for Low-Cost Radiation Detection Materials
Opportunities for low cost radiation detection materials center on displacing NaI(Tl) as the
material of choice for most domestic security applications and on development of high-
performance materials as alternatives for medical imaging equipment. Page | 11
Domestic security opportunities: In the domestic security area, there are several
opportunities for new materials to make inroads as a replacement for NaI(Tl). All of these
opportunities revolve around alternatives that have a similar light emission to NaI and
equivalent performance in the radiation detection role, but with enough improvement in
resolution that they can function in an isotope identification role as well.
Note that the requirement is not that the material have the resolution of HPGe, but that the
material has enough improvement in resolution compared to NaI(Tl) to perform the isotopic
identification role in portal screening applications. If scintillators with such improvements in
resolution can be brought to market at low cost, they would eliminate the need for two-step
screening of cargo at ports as is done today. With an initial screen using an NaI detector
followed if necessary by screening with a high resolution HPGe detector for isotopic
determination to determine if the initial NaI-based alarm is a true security threat.
Low-cost detectors with improved resolution would eliminate this laborious second step in
cargo screening. NanoMarkets believes that, while not on the market yet, strontium iodide
has potential to function in this role. There seem to be no barriers from a crystal growth
perspective, and the high resolution of this material makes it a good candidate to provide a
low cost scintillation material with improved resolution for the isotope identification role in
cargo screening. YAP and YAG are all also candidates if their large crystal growth issues can be
overcome at low cost. GYGAG(Ce) has interesting properties as well, but is too early in its life
cycle to determine if it can be brought to market at low cost for domestic security
applications.
Thin-film-based imaging opportunities: The next class of lower cost scintillation detectors
expected to experience outsized growth is CsI thin-films for medical imaging applications. The
transition from film and phosphor plates is well underway, and CsI thin-film imaging plates
have grown dramatically in the past five years. If they can continue to come down the cost
curve, there is no reason why they should not become a dominant technology for x-ray
imaging over the next five years.
Crystal-based imaging opportunities: The final area of opportunity for lower cost scintillation
crystals is for radiological imaging. In this case, the current cost of these materials (such as
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BGO) is greater than the cost of NaI(Tl), so there is somewhat more latitude for moderately
more expensive materials to come to market if the performance improvement justifies the
cost over today’s benchmark materials. LaBr3 and silicates such as LSO and GSO should all be
well represented going forward. The yttrium silicates may also have opportunities for growth Page | 12
in the medical imaging area if crystal growth techniques can be perfected to allow volume
production of large crystals.
E.2.2 Opportunities for High-Performance Radiation Detection Materials
Semiconductor radiation detectors offer the highest resolution of known materials and are
thus used in the most demanding energy resolution applications. Several attractive
opportunities for growth exist in the high-performance radiation detection materials area,
however.
Opportunities for HPGe: The highest resolution applications will continue to be dominated by
HPGe and benefit from incremental improvements in HPGe-based detectors.
In fact, these improvements will have less to do with the detection material and more with
cost and form factor reduction opportunities in the rest of the integrated system. As high
performance digital signal processors become more powerful and at the same time use less
energy, there will be some size reduction in the electronics and improved battery life for the
system due to less power use. Improvements in the electromechanical cooling alternatives to
liquid nitrogen for detectors will also be important.
Electromechanical cooling to eliminate the liquid nitrogen requirement for HPGe detectors
has undergone many improvements over the years and is at the point where the new units on
the market are much less bulky and do not degrade detector performance compared to liquid
nitrogen cooled units. Early units were too bulky for convenient use. Adoption of
electromechanical cooling elements originally developed for cooling of military IR sensors
improved form factor, but further improvements were necessary to reduce vibrations and
further reduce the form factor. Units with these improvements, which came on the market
around 2004, have high resolution, an improved form factor for mobile operations and low
enough power requirements that they are acceptable for field operations (~ 15 watts).
Based on the progression of improvements over time for such micro-electromechanical
coolers, further incremental improvements in power requirements and form factor will no
doubt continue. With the improvements in these units, competing high temperature detector
options will have to have hand held form factors and ultra low power consumptions with
resolution high enough to easily fulfill the isotope identification role in order to take market
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share away from these latest small mobile electromechanically cooled HPGe units. We
believe that the latest germanium-based detectors with the reduced size at a similar price
point will enjoy steady growth through the reporting period.
Page | 13
Several companies are pursuing new electromechanical materials for energy harvesting and
cooling, and these materials have the potential to reduce the size and energy requirements of
current thermoelectric coolers by half. With reduced size at a similar price point, germanium-
based detectors will enjoy steady growth through the reporting period.
Opportunities for CZT: If crystal growth techniques can be mastered and aggressive cost
cutting put in place as detector manufacturing volumes increase, NanoMarkets believes that
CZT will be poised for the most dramatic growth over the next eight years. While CZT does
not have the resolution of HPGe, it is more than adequate for isotope detection in domestic
security applications and high enough such that automated software can analyze raw data for
threats with a very low false positive identification rate.
The ability of CZT to detect at room temperature frees it from the requirements that HPGe
has for either liquid nitrogen or electromechanical coolers, thus allowing CZT detectors to
have a significantly smaller form factor and a much longer battery life for field operations. The
overall market for these detectors is not to be underestimated. If the cost can be brought
down, NanoMarkets believes that CZT will not just displace current HPGe units, but will
expand the usage of high-performance isotope-capable detectors into areas where NaI
detection is current employed because HPGe detectors are impractical due to the cooling and
form factor requirements.
Medical imaging is another significant opportunity for CZT if detector costs can be reduced.
The increased sensitivity and resolution of CZT compared to current materials such as BGO
offers several advantages:
Improved image resolution
Increased sensitivity, allowing lower doses and decreased imaging time. The
decreased imaging time per patient improves the productivity and profitability of each
unit and enables a smaller form factor unit.
All of these positive aspects can justify some cost offset of CZT vs. current and projected
scintillators. NanoMarkets anticipates, however, that there will have to be significant
reductions in the current cost of CZT detectors and demonstration of detector availability in
high volume before CZT will be adopted in the marketplace for medical imaging. Production
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volumes are increasing and crystal quality is improving, but it remains to be seen if high
volume production can reduce the costs enough for CZT to experience its full potential
growth.
Page | 14
E.2.3 Longer-term Opportunities for Radiation Detection Materials
A final radiation detection area where there is an opportunity and a desperate need but few
solutions is detection of low and high energy neutrons.
Opportunities in low energy neutron detection: Current low energy neutron detectors, or
thermal neutron detectors, are vacuum tubes filled with 3He gas. 3He detection is unwieldy at
best. Tubes are up to a meter long, require 1000V to operate, and are sensitive to vibrations.
Furthermore, current stores of 3He are being consumed three times faster than they are being
replenished. 3Heis is harvested from nuclear weapons, and with the disarmament treaties
presently in place, the available production is constantly declining with no natural source to
serve as a replacement. Projections are that current stores will be exhausted in less than 10
years.
Suitable solid-state materials are not commercially available. One attractive solution on the
horizon is a fabricated Si/boron solid-state detector. The detector consists of extremely
deeply etched silicon trenches (up to 50 um) that are filled with boron. The boron detects the
thermal neutrons, which produce particles that interact with the silicon to create a current
that in turn can be detected to quantify the thermal radiation. Another new solution is
scintillating glass fiber neutron censors with 6Li embedded in the glass fibers.
Opportunities in high energy neutron detection: The best known material for detecting high
energy or fast neutrons is Stilbene, but the only commercially available source of Stilbene
single crystals for radiation detection use is in the Ukraine. Crystal growth techniques are
difficult and expensive at this point. Research is ongoing at U.S.-based national labs, but work
is far from commercialization. Key characteristics for a Stilbene substitute include the
following:
The presence of benzene rings for efficient scintillation;
High hydrogen content for interactions with neutrons;
Only low-atomic-number (low-Z) constituents, such as hydrogen or carbon, to avoid
excessive interaction with gamma radiation; and
Delayed emission to better show pulse shape discrimination (PSD).
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The key for such crystals is to be able to separate the signature of neutrons from a strong
background of gamma radiation. The process is called pulse shape discrimination. Stilbene
has been known for years as such a material. Today, liquid organic scintillation materials are
used because of Stilbene’s limited availability, high cost, and environmental concerns. 1,3,5- Page | 15
triphenlybenzene and 9,10 diphenylanthracene are two of the materials that LLNL has
identified as possible alternatives for Stilbene.
E.3 Key Firms to Watch
For NaI, there are several key firms to track, although there are many smaller manufacturers
that also supply the market. Horiba in Japan is one of the major manufacturers of large
NaI(Tl) crystals. In the U.S., Alpha Spectra of Grand Junction Colorado is a major supplier for
highly varied radiation detection applications. Saint-Gobain and Hilger are also major
suppliers of NaI worldwide.
For thin-film CsI/a-Si, Hamamatsu, Varian, Samsung and Kodak are all major suppliers of x-ray
flat panel modules and key firms to track in this sector going forward. Radiation Monitoring
Devices of Watertown, Massachusetts is also very active in thin-film CsI research for x-ray
detection.
For scintillation oxide and silicate crystals suitable for radiological medical imaging
applications such as BGO, LSO, GSO, Saint-Gobain, Lambda Photonics, Hilger crystals, Hitachi
and small companies such as Omega Piezo of State College, Pennsylvania and Rexon of
Beachwood, Ohio are firms to watch.
ORTEC, based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is one of the leaders in HPGe detectors. Canberra
Industries of Meriden, Conn. is also a major manufacturer of these detectors.
In the CZT space, Redlen Technologies is a firm to watch as is has recently opened a new
manufacturing facility in Victoria, British Columbia to expand their production of CdxZn1-xTe
single crystals. The new facility increases the number of crystal growth furnaces to over 300
from the current capacity of 50. Also in the CZT area, GE Healthcare purchased Orbotech of
Israel, which was GE’s source of CZT detectors for GE’s nuclear medicine division.
Ultra low cost plastic scintillation materials are widely available from many sources. Nucsafe
of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Radcom of Oakville, Ontario Canada, and SIAC of McLean VA, are
firms that bear watching in this sector.
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E.4 Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts for Radiation Detection Materials
Exhibits E-1 and E-2 show projections for revenue and volume for scintillation and
semiconductor radiation detectors over the next eight years. The eight-year forecast for
revenue is characterized by relatively steady growth in all sectors. Variables that could Page | 16
accelerate growth include nuclear accidents, radiological terror or robust economic worldwide
growth. Factors that could retard growth from the estimates given include sovereign debt
issues affecting major economics, complacency in domestic security if terror threats subside,
or a lack of resurgence in the nuclear power industry.
The estimates in Exhibits E-1 and E-2 are further broken down in Exhibit E-3, where the
revenue projections are shown by sector. The key reason in our opinion for the steady growth
is the nature of the two dominant sectors, which are the domestic security and medical
markets.
Domestic security in the U.S. and Europe is established and has become so engrained in the
bureaucracy of these regions that spending in these areas has become non-discretionary and
basically cannot be cut. If a radiological terror attack occurs, the projections in Exhibit E-3 will
for domestic security underestimate growth, and if sovereign debt issues in Europe and the
U.S. overwhelm major governments, growth will be slightly less than the projections shown.
Growth of domestic security materials will be brisk in the BRIC countries and emerging regions
as these regions upgrade their air travel and port systems to protect themselves from possible
radiological threats.
The other dominant sector will be the medical sector, where similar dynamics are in play. In
the U.S. and Europe, the highly regulated nature of medical delivery will maintain the current
trend towards increased reliance on radiological imaging for diagnostic medicine, which will
drive steady growth in the scintillation crystal sector for the entire reporting period as shown
in Exhibit E-3. Because medicine is highly regulated, it may retard the transition to newer
materials if excessive regulatory issues impede change, but as the component being changed
is the detector material and not the nature of the radio nucleotide generating the radiation,
regulatory issues should be a minor impediment to improvements in scintillation materials for
medical imaging.
The other piece of the medical sector that will continue its rapid growth detection materials
for x-ray imaging as this diagnostic technique transitions from film and phosphors to thin-film
scintillation detectors based on CsI/a-Si thin films. The x-ray imaging sector is undergoing the
transition from film to digital that happened in the photography market in the past 10-15
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years. The early adopters have already moved to digital and digital x-ray imaging is now
becoming main stream. As detector prices continue to drop, the trend will accelerate, with
film becoming a legacy product within the next 10 years.
Page | 17
Outside of the domestic security and medical markets, growth will also be steady for other
sectors. Geophysical applications in the oil industry will be steady, even in a poor economy as
the demand for oil in emerging regions will support current projected levels of exploration.
Military growth will be steady as more advanced dosimeters are distributed to a higher
percentage of the troops and demand for isotope identification equipment and base
monitoring equipment increases. Isotope identification will transition to room temperature
semiconductor detectors for all but the most exacting applications. Base monitoring
equipment will make extensive use of NaI for detection and room temperature
semiconductors for isotope identification.
Nuclear power will see steady growth as emerging regions build nuclear plants. It is unknown
if the nuclear renaissance of next-generation plants will happen in the U.S. and Europe, but
the projections below assume a small renaissance with some new capacity, at least in the
construction stage by the end of the eight year reporting period. Finally, growth of non-
nuclear scientific applications should be steady for the entire eight year reporting period.
Governments worldwide have made a commitment to support scientific exploration and
unless economic turmoil is extreme, spending and growth of radiation detection materials for
scientific applications should continue on its current vector.
Exhibit E-1 shows projected revenues for all types of radiation. Revenue is given in millions of
dollars.
Exhibit E-1 Worldwide Radiation Detection Revenues ($ millions)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Scintillation detector revenues
Semiconductor detector revenues
Total
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Worldwide Radiation Detection Revenues
3,500
3,000
Page | 18
2,500
$ Millions
2,000
Semiconductor detector
1,500 revenues
1,000 Scintillation detector
500 revenues
0
20112012201320142015201620172018
© NanoMarkets, LC
Total Radiation Detection Revenues
3,500
3,300
3,100
2,900
$ Millions
2,700
2,500
2,300
2,100
1,900
1,700
1,500
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
© NanoMarkets, LC
Exhibit E-2 shows the projected volume of material for scintillation detectors, thin-film
detectors and semiconductor detectors. Measurement units differ for each category of
detector. Volume for scintillators is given in millions of cubic centimeters. For thin-film
scintillators in millions of square centimeters and for semiconductor detectors in thousands of
square centimeters.
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Exhibit E-2 Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Crystalline scintillation detector volume
(millions of cm3)
Thin-film scintillation detectors (millions of Page | 19
cm2)
Semiconductor detector volume
(thousands of cm2)
© NanoMarkets 2011
Worldwide Radiation Detector Volume
1400
1200
Crystalline scintillation
1000
detector volume
800 (millions/cm3)
600 Thin-film scintillation
detectors (millions/cm2)
400
200
Semiconductor detector
0 volume (thousands/cm2)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
© NanoMarkets, LC
Exhibit E-3 shows projected revenues broken out by sector and radiation type over the next
eight years.
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Exhibit E-3 Worldwide Radiation Detector Revenues by Application ($ Millions)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Domestic Security:
Scintillation
Semiconducting Page | 20
Thin-film
TOTAL
Military:
Scintillation
Semiconducting
Thin-film
TOTAL
Medical Imaging:
Scintillation
Semiconducting
Thin-film
TOTAL
Nuclear Power:
Scintillation
Semiconducting
Thin-film
TOTAL
Geophysical:
Scintillation
Semiconducting
Thin-film
TOTAL
Non-nuclear power scientific and other:
Geophysical:
Scintillation
Semiconducting
TOTAL
Grand Total
© NanoMarkets 2011
To obtain a full version of this report please visit our website at www.nanomarkets.net or
contact us at 804-270-4370 or via email at sales@nanomarkets.net.
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Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Background to This Report
Radiation detection materials are a category of substances that represent a sector poised for Page | 21
significant growth as new options become available in the near future. While current
materials such as sodium iodide (NaI), silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide (GaAs) are
currently used, they are all less than ideal for many existing and proposed new applications.
The needs of domestic security forces, the military and nuclear medicine diagnostics for both
high performance/higher sensitivity for some applications and the need for less sensitive, low
cost solutions for pervasive monitoring on the other hand present a fertile market for new
radiation detection materials.
1.1.1 Scintillations and Semiconductors
Radiation detection materials can be divided into two general categories. Scintillation
materials are crystals which emit a flash of light when excited by radiation. The scintillation
crystal is paired with a photomultiplier tube which converts the light flash into an electric
signal and records the intensity and quantity of the observed radiation. NaI is the dominate
scintillation material used today. Other simple salts (mostly iodides), BGO (Bi3Ge4O12, bismuth
germanium oxide), PVT (polyvinyl toluene), and LYSO (cerium doped lutetium yttrium
orthosilicate) are also used in some current commercial applications. While scintillation based
radiation detectors are presently the only practical solution from a cost perspective for large
area or array detectors used for medical imaging and stand-off security applications, their
resolution, efficiency, sensitivity, and cost are all in need of improvement to fully meet the
desired performance for today’s applications.
Semiconductor based radiation detectors are the other major class of radiation detection
materials. Si, Ge, and GaAs are the dominate detector materials in this class. While
semiconductor detectors have much improved resolution and are the only solutions available
for many high performance applications, their cost is more than ten times that of most
scintillation materials and many require cooling with liquid nitrogen to function. While
extreme cooling requirements are not an issue for laboratory applications, mobile high
resolution applications are in desperate need of a low-cost room temperature radiation
detection solution. CdZnTe is showing promise as a room temperature radiation detector and
several devices are under development, but techniques to achieve the large single crystals
necessary for large scale production has proven an elusive goal.
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Through the 1990s, work to understand the physics of new scintillation and semiconductor
materials proceeded at a relatively leisurely pace and was confined largely to the academic
world, as the development of new materials and engineering of these materials into products
was not economically justified by the commercial demand (with the exception of medical Page | 22
imaging, where there was enough demand to justify some movement to develop new
materials).
1.1.2 9/11 and After: Current Prospects and Markets for Radiation
Detection Materials
The entire landscape for radiation detection materials changed after 9/11, however, when the
threat of terrorists attacking the U.S. or other modern nations with either a nuclear device or
an improvised radiological weapon (dirty bomb) became a viable threat. In response to this
new threat, the U.S. government implemented laws and policies requiring the placement of
radiation detection equipment at all ports of entry and that mobile and fixed detection
equipment be available to first responders in the U.S. and worldwide for countries that were
targets for international terrorism. In addition, programs such as the Megaports Initiative
seek to place radiation detection equipment at foreign ports in addition to U.S. ports of entry.
The growth in radiation detection opportunities from these government-driven applications
has spurred research into all types of radiation detection materials. Because of the
government demand to bring new products to market, the availability of such newly
developed materials will likely lead to new demand from civilian applications as well. The
growth of civilian markets that results from newly available radiation detection materials
created from government sponsored work will be similar to much of the early growth of the
civilian silicon semiconductor market, where civilian demand by itself did not justify the
capital expenditure to develop processes and manufacturing equipment.
However, once this infrastructure existed (driven by military contracts to develop integrated
circuits for the Minuteman II missile program), the equipment and process knowledge was
leveraged to develop civilian applications of integrated circuits much earlier than would have
been economically justified had the government demand not existed. This same potential
exists for civilian applications of new radiation detection materials developed for domestic
security and military applications.
Opportunities abound for new radiation detection materials with improved properties
compared to the current crop of scintillation and semiconductor substances. No current
material meets all of the needs of today’s applications. Resolution, efficiency, sensitivity and
cost are areas of need for almost all current applications. Key areas of improvement from a
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materials perspective for semiconductor detectors include room temperature service, higher
availability and robustness than current materials and improved overall sensitivity and
performance. For the scintillation detectors, higher light output is a key need. Better linearity
and improved energy resolution and improved decay times are also properties that would be Page | 23
highly beneficial. For the nanocomposites and ceramics, cost and simplified fabrication
techniques are key needs areas.
Domestic security applications represent the major source of demand for significant
improvement through discovery and commercialization of new radiation detection materials.
Currently, between 11 and 15 million shipping containers from over 600 foreign ports pass
through 370 U.S. ports each year. Radiation portal monitors (RPMs) at all of these sites were
one of the first goals of U.S. Homeland Security post 9/11. While Homeland Security has this
radiation detection equipment in place, the detection rate of false positive alarms due to
mischaracterization of natural radiation sources such as ceramics and granite as active threats
is unacceptably high.
The first generation of radiation portals was mostly PVT (polyvinyl toluene)-based. The false
positive rate with this material was extremely high. Much of this infrastructure has now been
replaced by NaI-based detectors. Typical RPMs contain arrays of approximately 10,000 NaI
crystals in their detectors. While the resolution of NaI is much improved, the false positive
rate is still unacceptably high and it remains difficult to resolve the types of radiation being
detected. Also, the lifetime of NaI is limited. Current estimates for NaI lifetimes in current
RPMs are approximately eight-ten years. Moving to HPGe (high purity germanium) would
allow the resolution necessary to eliminate nuisance alarms, but the high cost and
requirement of cryocooling caused the HPGe program to be discontinued for U.S. port
protection.
Upgrading the current infrastructure in the U.S. represents a significant opportunity for
radiation detection materials. Worldwide, the opportunity is even greater, with over 270
million cargo containers being moved between worldwide ports each year. The first
generation of detection portals cost approximately $1.2 billion for 1,400 portals. While the
U.S. Megaports Initiative has a goal of pre-inspection of all incoming cargo at foreign ports,
the incoming inspection rate is less than 10 percent today. Between upgrades to U.S.
infrastructure and Megaports-driven foreign demand, the consumption of advanced detection
materials will exhibit robust growth for the foreseeable future. Of the over $1 billion in R&D
spending by Homeland Security, over $100 million in fiscal 2012 has been approved for
radiation detection research.
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1.1.2 Imaging and Other Markets
Small-scale detection: Beyond the RPM markets, other categories of radiation detection
equipment with significant growth opportunities include personal radiation detectors (PRDs),
radioactive isotope identification devices (RIIDs), and non-invasive imaging (NII) systems. Page | 24
Non-invasive imaging is a separate technology and will not be included in this report. PRDs
are small, hand-held or pocket devices that detect gamma rays and can give information on
radiation intensity. RIID’s are larger devices (from .5 to 25 lbs) that include a gamma ray
spectrometer that can determine isotopic identities. They often also contain neutron
detectors. PRDs represent a potential mass market if prices can be reduced to acceptable
levels, while RIID’s represent a significant market for all types of first responders and will have
significant military demand. Based on data from recent years, it is expected that
domestic/internal security applications will sustain their growth rate of between 10 and 13
percent over the next eight years. Around 50 percent of the market for PRDs and RIIDs is in
North America.
Geophysical applications: Radiation detectors for geophysical applications (mainly oil well
logging) represent another market where the current materials fall short of meeting the
desired radiation detection needs of the end user. Geophysical applications present some
unique use conditions compared to many other applications. Detectors for geophysical
applications must work in a wider range of temperatures and be less shock sensitive than
other applications. While NaI has been the standard material, its shock and moisture
sensitivity and the need for improved resolution have driven the search for other materials.
Lanthanum bromide (LaBr) and lanthanum chloride (LaCl) are now being used for many
geophysical applications. Lanthanum bromide provides double the light output and twice the
resolution of NaI at high temperatures. However, LaBr requires titanium housings and
sapphire window assemblies for peak performance. Further improvements to light output,
reductions in decay time and improved shock insensitivity will be beneficial for geophysical
applications.
Medical imaging: Medical imaging represents a significant opportunity for existing and new
radiation detection materials. The recent approval for reimbursement of PET and SPECT by
Medicare for Alzheimer’s patients is a major driving force for near term demand. Year on year
growth in this sector for the foreseeable future is in the 8-10 percent range. Of the overall
PET/SPECT market, PET represents approximately 75 percent of total revenue.
Several different materials are currently used for PET. BGO allows for a design that is
acceptable in performance, economical to build and easy to pack. Each BGO crystal is sawed
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into an array to direct light towards the photo multiplier tube. Such designs offer
approximately 5-mm spatial resolution. Siemens currently uses LSO (lutetium orthosilicate)
for their PET machines. Other manufacturers use LYSO as the radiation detector material.
For SPECT systems, NaI is the dominate radiation detection material. Key issues that new Page | 25
materials could effectively address for these high performance imaging machines are
increased signal to noise ratio, increased efficiency, reduced decay time and lower cost. From
a performance perspective, improving timing resolution of current materials would allow high
resolution time of flight (TOF) techniques to be more widely adopted.
1.2 Objective and Scope of this Report
The objective of this report is to give a detailed analysis of the current and emerging trends in
radiation detection materials. This report will discuss the opportunities and innovations in
materials that will result in a great expansion in both applications and volume of radiation
detection materials used over the next eight years.
In this report, we review radiation detection materials by type (scintillation and
semiconducting) and by application (domestic security, military, medical imaging, geophysical
and scientific R&D). The report will discuss the status and expected development roadmap
for both scintillation and semiconducting detector materials for each application type with
forecasts on new materials and improvement in manufacturing techniques such as crystal
growth and processing improvements that will be available in the near future.
We provide an in-depth review of current commercialization efforts by firms that are focused
on both specific materials and the opportunities for each type of material as it is integrated
into products for different uses. While covering the leading efforts in all significant areas of
radiation detection materials development, we have not provided detailed profiles of all firms
with any radiation detection materials activities given that there are many firms that are
currently active in this area in at least some capacity.
The report also contains detailed forecasts of each class of radiation detection materials, in
terms of revenues and volume, as well as by geography. It is international in scope. The
forecasts are worldwide and there has been no geographic selectivity in the firms covered or
interviewed in the collection of information for this report.
1.3 Methodology of this Report
The primary sources for the opinions and conclusions cited in this report on the emerging
materials and markets for radiation detection materials include extensive interviews with
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various industry and academic sources carried out in the second quarter of 2011. Secondary
research for this report was also taken from information available on the World Wide Web,
commercial and government databases, trade and press articles, technical literature,
information learned at technical conferences and trade shows, SEC filings and other corporate Page | 26
literature. The forecasting approach taken in this report is explained in more detail in Chapter
Four.
1.4 Plan of this Report
In Chapter Two of this report, we discuss worldwide trends that are impacting the demand for
new radiation detection materials, including the materials needs for the major application
categories including medical, domestic security, military, nuclear power and geophysical. An
analysis of the industry structure from a materials perspective and the current and future
requirements for device makers will be presented. A discussion of trends in crystal growth
techniques critical for large scale applications of some of the major radiation detection
materials, as well as opportunities for raw chemical suppliers to the radiation detection
materials makers is also included. Chapter Two concludes with an analysis of the key R&D
trends in radiation detection materials.
Chapter Three presents a survey of all of the key classes of radiation detection materials.
Simple salt scintillation materials, oxide-based scintillation materials, plastic/organic polymer-
based scintillation materials, silicate-based and yttrium-based materials will be covered. The
semiconductor-based materials Including silicon, germanium, selenides and tellurides of
cadmium and cadmium/zinc as well as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide and high
temperature semiconductor materials are also covered. Chapter Three concludes with a
discussion of new ceramic and nanocomposite materials.
In Chapter Four, we provide detailed forecasts of the markets for radiation detection
materials for each of the major classes of applications covered in this report. In this chapter,
we project the market forward in both volume and value terms by geography, with breakouts
by application and material type.
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