Linatron Mi6, the X-Ray Source for Cargo Inspection

Abstract

Since its inception in 2008, Linatron Mi6 has been the standard x-ray source for cargo inspection. It produces interlaced dual energy (6MV and 3.5MV) x-ray pulses that enable material discrimination scan in a single pass. Both pulse-to-pulse and longer term stability has been improved. With Linatron Mi6 as the x-ray source, it is now possible to achieve a continuous material discrimination scale, instead of only dividing materials into four classes: organic material, inorganic material, metals and high atomic metals. Other advanced material discrimination features include virtual layer peeling and trust rating. Energy sensitive imaging detectors can extend material discrimination in thin-object region. Although our Linatron Mi9 Linatron, which produces interlaced pulses of 9MV and 6MV x-ray pulses, provides even better material discrimination performance as well as better radiographic performance, it is not as widely used due to increased imaging system size and higher cost of safety shielding.

Studies on a dual energy RF electron linac

“…One important application of x-ray imaging is the scanning of large size cargos (upto few meters and density of around thousand kilograms per cubic meter) for detecting contraband objects such as explosives, narcotics and nuclear materials etc. [1][2][3][4]. A cargo inspection system mainly consists of the x-ray source, an array of detectors, image processing software, control systems and the gantry or other mechanical moving systems.…”