Abstract

Medical imaging history has begun with the discovery of X-rays. X-rays are widely used since their invention in different areas, from projectional radiography to computed tomography. Year by year their technology is improved in many aspects, especially for their generation, their tubes are changed to get the most efficient rays. Nowadays different mechanisms are studied to obtain X-rays; one of them is pyroelectricity phenomena. Pyroelectricity is a material’s electricity generation from temperature changes. The output spectra of the pyroelectric X-ray generator is quite similar to traditional X-ray tubes, which gives a chance for replacing low-voltage pyroelectric X-ray generators instead of high-voltage conventional X-ray tubes. The results of conducted experiments and continued studies show us that the use of pyroelectricity for X-ray generation has great advantages. Thanks to the compactness of the pyroelectric X-ray generator, more portable X-ray devices may be available in the near future. In addition, these new designs offer safer and easier to operate since they use only 12 Volts instead of kiloVolts. In conclusion, healthcare technologies require high budges in general, this low-cost alternative might make the radiological imaging available for low-income countries. In this paper, the fundamentals of X-ray generation from pyroelectric material is reviewed, a device on the market, COOL-X, is investigated, and both conventional method and pyroelectricity methods are compared.