UK company collaborates on breast cancer detection technology

County Durham-based radiation detection specialist Kromek is contributing its cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detection technology to the project, which aims to develop a 3D molecular breast imager (3D MBI) scanner capable of more precise and certain diagnosis of small breast cancer tumours than is possible today. Kromek is one of only four companies in the world to make CZT, a room-temperature semiconductor that directly converts x-ray or gamma ray photons into charge carriers inside the crystal which is already used in medical devices and for studying high-energy phenomena in space.

The 3D MBI project is funded via a £321,000 grant to Kromek under the European scheme Eurostars through Innovate UK, and involves a DTU Space research team at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen. Lasting two years, the main focus of the project is making the electronics used around CZT detectors smaller, lighter and more power efficient, which will have also have implications for space applications of technology. The project grew out of a previous collaboration between the two organisations to create detectors for radio astronomy to detect gamma rays in space.