MEBCIS: Multi-energy betatron-based cargo inspection system

The security market requirements for state-of-the-art mobile and portal radiography inspection systems include high imaging resolution (better than 5 mm line pair), penetration beyond 300 mm steel equivalent, material discrimination (three groups of Z) at speeds up to 16 km/h with 100% image sampling, low dose and small radiation exclusion zone. New research into radiography methods and systems has been actively pursued in order to achieve these challenging requirements. Recently, a significant portion of the R&D effort has been devoted to re-examining betatron based X-ray inspection systems. The advantages of the betatron-based inspection systems over conventional linac-based designs include small focal spot (which improves resolution), low weight and form-factor, a simpler control system and relatively low cost. A novel, low-dose Multi-Energy Betatron-based Cargo Inspection System, MEBCIS, presented in this paper relies on an innovative technique of extracting two X-ray pulses with lower-and higher-energies within a single betatron acceleration cycle (in contrast to conventional dual-energy betatrons with one X-ray pulse produced during separate betatron acceleration cycles). In addition to the new betatron, new types of fast X-ray Scintillation-Cherenkov detectors, rapid processing of detector signals, an adaptive detector feedback algorithm for control of the betatron, and algorithms for intelligent material discrimination are parts of the overall MEBCIS system. The key advantage of the MEBCIS concept is that the material discrimination data is acquired in a single scan line rather than two. Thus, for the same betatron pulse rate, the scan rate can be twice as fast (better throughput) or can be done with a lower dose, even without adaptive dynamic pulse adjustment. Application of these techniques will maximize material discrimination, penetration, and contrast resolution while simultaneously reducing dose to the environment, resulting in a smaller exclusion zone. Its minimal size and weight will allow MEBCIS to be placed on a lightweight truck chassis.