Microfluidic gratings for X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces a scalable, cost-effective method for fabricating microfluidic X-ray gratings using soft lithography and Hg infusion, enabling improved biomedical imaging with comparable performance to traditional methods.

Contribution

It presents a novel fabrication process for X-ray gratings that is simpler, cheaper, and more scalable than conventional techniques, facilitating broader adoption.

Findings

Comparable visibility to traditional Au-based gratings

Reduced fabrication costs and complexity

Potential for scalable biomedical imaging applications

Abstract

Fabrication of X-ray gratings has surged in the last two decades thanks to their vast employment in X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging, an imaging technique able to boost X-ray sensitivity to detect otherwise invisible details. These high aspect ratio devices are usually fabricated by complex, costly, multi-step processes that limit their size and volume scaling. These steps commonly involve UV or X-ray lithography, semiconductor selective etching and high-Z metal plating, usually Au, which require expensive tools and materials. Here we present a proof-of-concept fabrication via soft lithography and Hg infusion of microfluidic X-ray absorption gratings and their performance in biomedical imaging. Such fabrication technique requires fewer, less expensive, and more scalable processes using alternative and more sustainable materials, while showing comparable visibility with their conventional Au-based, solid equivalent. Our results constitute a promising shift in X-ray optics fabrication that could significantly lower barriers to commercialization and accelerate the practical deployment of X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging.