The difference from previous computer tomography  technology to photon-counting CT is about the  

same as going from regular TV to HD, and from  black and white to color but all in one step.  

But photon-counting CTs can be built only if  you have the appropriate detector material.  

What you see here is actually only a single  piece of the puzzle but it is the critical  

piece of the puzzle. We knew how to build  everything the complete photon-counting CT.  

We even knew exactly how the sensor material had  to be and what it was made of. Only unfortunately  

such material was not available anywhere in  the world. After several years of searching  

we identified our current partner Acrorad as  the company that had the highest technological  

level in this field and with whom the  chances of success were the highest.  

In many years of work we have jointly succeeded  in making the material meet the high demands of  

CT imaging. We have assembled an international  team from various fields of crystal growing  

but even these experts had to start from scratch.  The complexity of the manufacturing process can  

be easily measured by the number of  process steps and by their duration.  

The big challenge is the absolute purity, the  crystal perfection, and thus the electrical  

properties of the crystal. This means that  all the rooms here in the new building  

have to be at clean room level. However, many  of the substances here are toxic. So we had to  

partially reverse the principle of the clean room  and suck the air out instead of blowing it in.  

This necessary purity goes so far that even  the material of the hammer used to crush the  

raw materials must be specially selected and that  not even the smallest particle of contamination  

enters the process. Many work pieces that  come into contact with the processed materials  

cannot be simply delivered. For example, we have  to coat and clean our process ampoules ourselves.  

Thus, every step becomes a challenge and the  simplest moves have to be practiced precisely  

and become an art of craftsmanship. Much of the  work here is manual such as sealing the ampoules.  

One goal here is to automate some of these  work steps, increase capacity, and quality.  

So we are here at the production research  and development facility all in one. 

Sawing does not simply mean sawing but sawing  along a certain crystallographic orientation.

Cutting, grinding, filling all with equipment  that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Nevertheless only 12 percent  of the process is over now.

Most of this is preparation until actual crystal  growth can begin. This lasts about 10 weeks. The  

slightest mistake or a tiny contamination and  the procedure would have to start all over again.

If you think three months for the whole process  is long I find that insanely fast. In nature  

crystals take three million years to grow. I  often get this question: is this expense justified?

I have seen what the new photon-counting CTs  are capable of. Believe me it's worth every effort  

with this we advance the future of computed tomography shaping the future of healthcare.