DALSA to showcase its Helios10 MD panel at the RSNA 2009

DALSA Corporation (TSX: DSA), through its Rad-icon Imaging division, today announced general availability of the Helios10 MD panel, the first product in the company's new Helios camera family. With an active area of 20 x 25 cm, the Helios10 MD is the first CMOS X-Ray panel from DALSA of this size and form factor, a medical-grade cassette package with an integrated handle. The Helios10 MD panel was designed to exceed the rigorous imaging requirements for a wide variety of medical imaging applications such as full-field digital mammography, general radiography, bone densitometry, and other mobile digital radiography (DR) applications. DALSA will be showcasing the Helios10 MD at RSNA 2009, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America held at McCormick Place in Chicago, at Booth #7117 (North Building, Hall B) from November 29 - December 4, 2009.

The Helios10 MD panel builds on the field proven tiled configuration of Rad-icon's RadEye100 very large area (VLA) CMOS image sensors to achieve a total active sensing area of 8" x 10" (20 x 25 cm), while maintaining superb image resolution with a pixel size of only 96 um. The active-pixel CMOS photodiode array at the core of the Helios panel consists of over five million individual pixels that convert light emitted by the integrated scintillator screen into electrical signal. The detector's low-noise, 14-bit digital output produces crisp, sharp images ideal for medical radiography applications. The panel is packaged in a custom-molded housing with a slim cassette form factor and integrated handle. Designed with portable imaging applications in mind, the panel weighs less than 3 kg and is easily positioned using just one hand. Other features include:

-- State-of-the-art GigE interface connects to laptop or PC via standard Ethernet or fiber-optic cable; -- Low-noise active pixel CMOS sensor and 14-bit digitization results in excellent sensitivity and high dynamic range; -- Proprietary fiber-optic technology increases sensor lifetime and enhances DQE at energies up to 160 kVp; -- Low power CMOS design consumes less than 10 W; and -- Rugged molded plastic housing with built-in handle is ready for clinical environment.

The Helios10 MD panel is optimized for medical imaging up to 160 kVp for applications such as general radiography, mobile/portable X-ray systems, and mammography.

"Rad-icon's large-area panels -- like the Helios -- are the future of X-ray crystallography because they're able to meet all of my technical requirements at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions," commented Edwin M. Westbrook, MD, PhD, Director, Molecular Biology Consortium, University of Chicago, and Founder, Research Devices, Inc. "With the panel's large active area we can capture large diffraction angles, and with the low readout noise we can image even faint diffraction spots. Overall, this panel delivers everything that an X-ray crystallography laboratory needs to conduct world-class research."

"The Helios10 MD panel represents a major milestone in Rad-icon's mission to bring to market a portfolio of large-area CMOS X-ray panels for medical imaging applications," said Thorsten Achterkirchen, General Manager of Rad-icon Imaging and Vice President of DALSA Corporation. "The Helios10 MD panel is the first CMOS flat panel detector of this size and form factor in the market today. We are pleased with the strong interest in the Helios panel for use in mobile DR and other imaging applications."

Larger area panels enable medical radiologists to image proportionally larger subjects in a field where images cannot be reduced by optical coupling. With CMOS technology, these large area panels are essential to building a cost-effective, high-performing digital imaging system. Other imaging technologies, such as image intensifiers and CCDs, yield imaging solutions with bulky form factors, troubling distortion, or cassette-based output. Whereas CMOS X-ray cameras -- like Rad-icon's Helios10 MD -- solve the issues of form factor, image output, and storage by delivering high performance, high sensitivity, and superior resolution in a compact form factor at a cost-efficient price.