Scintillator stack, device including the scintillator stack, and method for making the scintillator stack

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9707710-B2
Application number	US-201514634393-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2015
Priority date	Feb 27, 2014
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

A scintillator stack includes a light-transportation layer and a scintillator layer. The scintillator stack can be included in a scintillator device. The scintillator stack can be made using a co-extrusion method.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A scintillator stack comprising:
an at least one scintillator layer including a first scintillator layer;
an at least one neutron sensitive layer including a first neutron-sensitive layer;
a first light-transportation layer; and
a second light-transportation layer,
wherein the first scintillator layer and the first neutron-sensitive layer are disposed between and directly contacting the first and second light-transportation layers;
wherein the first scintillator layer directly contacts the first neutron-sensitive layer; and
wherein the at least one scintillator layer and the at least one neutron-sensitive layer each have an averaged thickness of less than 100 microns.

2. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the at least one neutron-sensitive layer includes a neutron-sensitive particulate material dispersed in pulse shape discriminating (PSD) polymer.

3. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the at least one scintillator layer is gamma ray-sensitive.

4. The scintillator stack of claim 3 , wherein the at least one scintillator layer includes a particulate material dispersed in a polymer matrix.

5. The scintillator stack of claim 4 , wherein the particulate material is sensitive to gamma rays.

6. The scintillator stack of claim 5 , wherein the particulate material includes NaI, CeBr 3 , bismuth germinate (BGO), or any combination thereof.

7. The scintillator stack of claim 4 , wherein the polymer is sensitive to gamma rays.

8. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the at least one scintillator layer includes a scintillator particulate material; and
the at least one neutron-sensitive layer includes a neutron-sensitive particulate material.

9. The scintillator stack of claim 8 , wherein the stack includes a plurality of alternating layers including the at least one scintillator layer, the first light-transportation layer, the second light transportation layer and the at least one neutron-sensitive layer.

10. The scintillator stack of claim 8 , wherein the at least one scintillator layer is an organic scintillator layer.

11. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the at least one scintillator layer is not a neutron-sensitive layer.

12. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the stack includes at least 5 layers of each of the at least one scintillator layer, the light transportation layer and the at least one neutron sensitive layer.

13. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the stack has a thickness of at least 1 mm.

14. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the stack has a percent trapped light of greater than 13%.

15. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the stack has a brightness product of at least 3.8.

16. A method of making the scintillator stack of claim 1 , the method comprising:
providing an extrudable scintillator material;
providing an extrudable light-transportation material;
co-extruding a structure comprising:
the at least one scintillator layer; and
the first and the second light-transportation layers; and
providing the structure to at least one multiplier extrusion die.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein a total number of the at least one neutron-sensitive layers and the total number of the at least one scintillator layers is equal to 2 x+1 , where x is a number of multiplier extrusion dies.

18. The scintillator stack of claim 16 , further comprising providing an extrudable neutron-sensitive material, wherein the structure further comprises the at least one neutron-sensitive layer.

19. The scintillator stack of claim 1 , wherein the stack includes a plurality of alternating layers including the at least one scintillator layer, the first light-transportation layer, the first light-transportation layer, and the at least one neutron-sensitive layer.

Assignees

• Saint-Gobain Ceram & Plastics Inc
• Saint-Gobain Ceram And Plastics Inc

Inventors

• Menge Peter R

Classifications

• B29C48/08

  flexible, e.g. films · CPC title

• B29K2101/12

  Thermoplastic materials · CPC title

• B29C48/365

  using pumps, e.g. piston pumps · CPC title

• B29K2509/00

  Use of inorganic materials not provided for in groups {B29K2503/00 - B29K2507/00,} as filler · CPC title

• B29C48/71

  for layer multiplication (extrusion of multi-component articles B29C48/16) · CPC title