Gadolinium oxysulfide (GOS) plays an important role in X-ray imaging equipment. my country’s production scale will continue to expand.

Gadolinium oxysulfide (GOS) is a fluorescent material that can absorb X-ray energy to produce fluorescence. It has the advantages of high conversion efficiency, fast response speed, and good stability. Gadolinium oxysulfide can be used to prepare gadolinium oxysulfide fluorescent screens and gadolinium oxysulfide scintillation ceramics, which are used in the production of digital X-ray detectors and CT detectors to manufacture digital X-ray photography systems (DR) and computed tomography (CT). Both are important X-ray imaging equipment.

Gadolinium oxysulfide is in demand in digital X-ray detectors and CT detectors, both of which are the core devices of DR and CT. Taking digital X-ray detectors as an example, according to the shape of the sensor array, they can be divided into flat-panel detectors and linear array detectors; according to the energy conversion process, they can be divided into direct detectors and indirect detectors. Among them, flat-panel detectors are the main product type, and indirect detectors are the main ones, that is, they first use scintillator to convert X-rays into fluorescence signals, and then use photodiodes to convert them into electrical signals.

Scintillator plays an important role in X-ray imaging equipment. The current mainstream products are cesium iodide and gadolinium oxysulfide. In comparison, cesium iodide has higher sensitivity, stronger conversion ability, uses lower X-ray dose, and has better imaging quality, but the cost is higher; gadolinium oxysulfide has lower conversion efficiency and uses higher X-ray dose. , the imaging quality is slightly lower, but the imaging speed is faster, the stability is better, and the cost is lower.

X-ray imaging equipment is widely used in disease diagnosis and treatment, industrial non-destructive testing, safety inspection and other fields. The medical field is the largest downstream market, and demand in the industrial field is growing rapidly. According to the“2022-2027 China Gadolinium Oxide Sulfide (GOS) Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report” released by the Industrial Research CenterIt shows that in medical and industrial aspects, in order to meet accuracy requirements, X-ray imaging equipment can use higher doses of radiation, so the market space for gadolinium oxysulfide as a scintillator is still large.

In 2021, the global digital radiography system (DR) equipment market size will be approximately US$7.07 billion, and is expected to grow at an average annual compound growth rate of approximately 4.7% from 2022 to 2027; in 2021, the global computed tomography (CT) equipment market will be The market size is approximately US$14.56 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 4.8% from 2022 to 2027. Benefiting from the continuous development of downstream industries, the market demand for gadolinium oxysulfide will continue to rise.

Globally, manufacturers that use gadolinium oxysulfide fluorescent screens and gadolinium oxysulfide scintillation ceramics to manufacture digital X-ray detectors and computed tomography equipment mainly include GE Healthcare of the United States, Varian of the United States, Trixell of France, Siemens of Germany, Canon Medical of Japan, etc. Overseas companies, as well as domestic companies such as Yirui Technology, Pinzhen Imaging, Neusoft Medical, and United Imaging Medical.

Industry analysts said that in order to improve core competitiveness, downstream digital X-ray detector and CT detector manufacturers have deployed upstream scintillator The pace of the materials market continues to accelerate. Yirui Technology is my country’s representative digital X-ray detector manufacturer. In order to expand its production line and achieve independent control of core raw materials, it plans to raise investment to build CMOS detectors, CT detectors, and industrialization projects of cesium iodide and gadolinium oxysulfide. From this point of view, my country’s gadolinium oxysulfide production capacity is expected to increase in the future.