KEK Develops Advanced SOIPIX X-ray Camera with High-Speed Readout for Multiple Scientific Applications
Researchers at KEK's Photon Factory have demonstrated three experimental applications of an INTPIX4NA SOIPIX-based X-ray camera equipped with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet readout system capable of several hundred frames per second. The camera features over 425,000 pixels at 17×17 µm resolution across a 14.1×8.7 mm² sensitive area, and was tested at multiple KEK and J-PARC facilities. The results suggest the system is viable for diverse high-precision imaging tasks, including X-ray microscopy, phase-contrast imaging, and nondestructive lithium detection in battery materials.
A team at the KEK Photon Factory (PF) has published a preprint reporting three recent application studies of an X-ray camera built around the INTPIX4NA Silicon-On-Insulator PIXel (SOIPIX) detector, a monolithic imaging device under development by KEK's SOIPIX group. The camera's readout system uses SiTCP-XG, a 10 Gb Ethernet controller implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), enabling high-frame-rate acquisition at several hundred hertz. The first application involved X-ray zooming microscope optics using two Fresnel zone plates at the PF AR-NE1A beamline. The second tested a phase-contrast X-ray imaging system employing a two-crystal X-ray interferometer at PF BL-14C. The third, conducted at the J-PARC Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) Muon D2 beamline, explored nondestructive detection of lithium in lithium-ion battery electrode materials using muonic X-rays — a technique of potential interest for battery research and quality control. The work was submitted as a proceedings preprint for the 14th International Hiroshima Symposium on Semiconductor Tracking Detectors (HSTD-14), held in Taipei, Taiwan in November 2025.
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- arXiv physicsCenter
Recent application studies of an INTPIX4NA SOIPIX detector-based X-ray camera using an SiTCP-XG 10GbE-based high-speed readout system at KEK facilities
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