Stellarray has developed technology to solve important problem in irradiation and imaging using the world’s first flat panel x-ray source and other novel radiation source platforms. In irradiation systems, this includes compact cabinet irradiators for sterilization of biologics and other materials, conveyor systems for the sterilization of agricultural and other products, and a digital irradiator that will accelerate experimentation and deepen data sets in cellular and other radiobiology studies. 

The tomographic imaging systems can be truly portable, while still providing high quality images.  A portable 3-D mammography (digital breast tomosynthesis) system could be small enough to fit into a suitcase and reach underserved women in rural, inner city and other remote areas who currently have limited access to this new standard of care.  A battlefield and emergency trauma imaging system could be compact and modular enough to provide high quality 3-D images of a range of medical conditions in an ambulance or in remote environments during the “golden hour” following an injury.  This technology builds on a Phase II SBIR project Stellarray performed for NASA on a tomographic radiation source small and light enough to bring on space missions. 

Stellarray was spun out of Stellar Micro Devices (SMD) after a project for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to decontaminate biohazards with radiation.  Panel manufacturing process development was supported by the NIST Advanced Technology Program. The company received further support from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, as well as a seed investment from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.  Stellarray won First Prize in the Medical Category in the 2015 NASA/Tech Briefs “Create the Future” Contest for its imaging system work.

All of Stellarray’s radiation panels use cathode arrays to make the move from point sources, such as X-ray tubes, to innovative panel sources. The X-ray panels use electron beams from cathode arrays fabricated on one side of the panel to strike a metal target (anode) across vacuum on the opposite side.  If all the cathodes are turned on at once, X-rays emit from the entire panel area, for a Flat Panel X-ray Source, or FPXS.  In the Digitally Addressable X-ray Source, small groups of cold cathodes are addressed at specific locations on the panel to make “X-ray pixels”, the location of which can be moved electronically rather than by moving the source. UV radiation sources are made by hitting phosphors with electron beams.  These sources can be made a range of sizes using processes and techniques from the flat panel display industry.