This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop key components for a low cost 3D X-ray security checkpoint system based on Laminography, a method of taking multiple projections of an object and combining these to create 3D slices of the object. Current checkpoint X-ray security systems have limitations because they provide only a transmission image of the object being screened, whereas a 3D image would provide much more relevant information. Another limitation with checkpoint X-ray security systems is that they take dual-energy images using two ?nested? layers of detectors, in order to get material-specific information from the image. Better results would be produced if high and low energy x-ray images could be captured separately, but such a method has not been implemented due to the unavailability of a low-cost X-ray source with a suitably high switching speed.The proposed solution overcomes these limitations by developing the key component of a 3D X-ray system with true dual-energy imaging ? the X-ray source. By employing a dual-grid dual-cathode source, and having the cathodes aligned along the axis of the tube, we can produce a low-cost high-switchingspeed X-ray source that delivers the cost and performance required for a low-cost 3D checkpoint system. Terrorists continue to target aviation as a top priority in their attacks. These attempts are very unlikely to stop. Although current aviation security checkpoints provide a strong line of defense, terrorists continue to analyze and exploit any weaknesses in these defenses. For this reason, it is critical that we continually improve the security checkpoints and security screening equipment to ensure that terrorists are not able to defeat these systems. In addition to airport checkpoints, the new source can be used to upgrade any X-ray based security system and to improve the performance of conventional Computed Tomography systems. The X-ray source that we are proposing is unique and can be used in a broad range of fields that includes medical imaging, non-destructive testing, X-ray fluorescence, and so forth. To speed the commercialization of the proposed technology, we will be working with Rapiscan, the world's #1 manufacturer of airport checkpoint security systems
