Scintillators play an important role in modern X-ray machines. They contain chemical substances that convert X-rays into visible light and thus make it possible to portray an image on an electronic display. Manfred Fuchs, 55, from Erlangen/Germany has long specialized in developing phosphor coatings for X-ray detectors and improving them so that patients are exposed to less radiation.

The classic light box on which the doctor hangs and views X-ray films will soon become a relic of the past. Instead, doctors are increasingly viewing X-ray images on a monitor. These modern processes achieve high resolutions while simultaneously exposing patients to less radiation. The radiographs are available to the doctor within just a few seconds, and they can be enhanced and saved with a digital image-processing system. What makes all of this possible in the first place are image intensifiers and the modern flat-panel detectors that incorporate phosphors and can therefore convert X-rays into visible light. The light is then converted into electrical signals by photodiodes and displayed by a computer. For a long time, the resolution achievable using conventional image intensifiers with high X-ray absorption was quite low. The key to high resolution lies more than anywhere else in the structure of the phosphor coating that is applied to the side of the image intensifier facing the X-rays. It is precisely these chemical substances that make up Fuchs’ research field.

The inventor’s workplace is a mixture of laboratory and workshop. Here, he tests the proportions in which chemicals such as cesium iodide and thallium can be vapor-deposited on an image panel so that they generate as much light as possible from the X rays. “Everything depends on the precise composition and how thick the coatings are,” says Fuchs. In countless trials, he experiments with scintillator coatings until he achieves improvements. In 2005, for instance, he succeeded in creating a phosphor coating that emits approximately 15 percent more light than the previous ones. “The more X-ray quanta the coating converts into light, the less radiation the patient is exposed to,” says Fuchs. His invention, which was granted patent protection in 2012, is today used in many X-ray detectors.

Fuchs works with many different tools and materials in his laboratory. “If I need a holder for a substance that I have to vaporize, I quickly build it myself,” he says. He owes his craftsmanship skills to his father, who was constantly remodeling the family home and recruited his son as a helper. “Today, I’m grateful to him for it,” says Fuchs. Originally, the native Franconian wanted to become a chemical laboratory assistant, but he wasn’t accepted. So he obtained his school leaving exam at a technical school and studied technical chemistry at the Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg. “I’ve always been interested in how chemistry can be applied in very practical ways,” he says. After finishing his studies, however, he first worked in basic research for electroradiography at Siemens in Erlangen. He is still working for Siemens’ Healthcare Sector today. However, he now works in the Department for Innovation for X Ray Emitters and Detectors. His workday begins at six o’clock in the morning. That’s because he likes to spend the late afternoon with his family, which lives on the outskirts of Nuremberg: Fuchs has an adult son and three young children with whom he spends a great deal of time as a soccer coach, hobbyist, and poultry breeder.
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