A novel portable X-ray diffractometer for nano-structures characterization E! 5542

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a technique which allows analysis of the atomic structure and the determination of the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, and is commonly used in the industry and in many laboratories for characterizing new materials. An X-r ay diffraction (XRD) system transmits X-ray beams to a sample (generally a single crystal, metallic solid or a powder) and records the diffraction pattern that occurs when the X-ray photons encounter the inter-atomic gaps within the crystal structure. App lications for XRD are widespread in areas such as pharmacy, mining, electronic, forensic, nano-developments, cosmetic, environment, art, metallurgy and more. The apparatus used for XRD analysis is called a diffractometer and consists of a X-ray source, a sample holder and a detection device. This new system (DynamiX) will be designed to take advantage of the unique features of Interons highly advanced photon counting solid-state detector technology combined with the experience and capabilities of INEL to optimize a new XRD spectrometer based on the new detector. This will extend the usability for XRD in the marketplace, and significantly increase the market for such instruments, for the main reasons of: - Significantly increased portability - Reduce d but optimized versatility (leading to lower price and operation by non-experts) - Its capability to perform continuous on-line nano-structure quality control on fabrication lines. The project consortium consist of INEL SAS (France), Interon AS (Norw ay) and SINTEF (Norway). We strongly believe that the particular new features of this system will open a new market for usage of XRD methology, and that this new market could be larger than the current world-wide XRD annual market of around Eur 180 mill ions. The commercial ambitions of this project is to explore both the current market and the new potential market enabling INEL to win a large market share