Zecotek opens LFS crystal facility in China

Putting its focus on becoming a leading supplier of scintillation crystals and other key photonic components in China and around the world, Richmond BC-based Zecotek Photonics Inc. recently opened its LFS crystal production facility in Shanghai, China. 

A number of local dignitaries and key Chinese and European OEM customers were on hand to meet senior executives and the senior technical team to celebrate the occasion at Zecotek Photonics, developer of leading-edge photonics technologies for healthcare, industrial and scientific markets.

“I am very pleased to welcome our honored guests to the grand opening of Zecotek’s LFS Crystal Production Facility here in Shanghai, China,” says Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, chairman, president and CEO of Zecotek Photonics Inc. “Having our own state-of-the-art production facility has given us full control of our product as we are now able to deliver high quality products at competitive costs. We have had a successful launch and we expect to reach full capacity with existing ovens very soon.”

Patented LFS scintillation crystals

The ISO certified LFS Crystal Production Facility has sufficient capacity to meet the delivery schedule of our Tier 1 clients and will be expanded to meet growing demand in late 2018 and early 2019.

Zecotek’s patented LFS scintillation crystals are grown using the Czochralski method with internal modifications. This proprietary growing method produces very large-diameter boules with uniform properties and without cracking (a problem with many competing scintillation materials). This highly efficient method produces a great number of high quality elements from each boule. Larger, higher quality boules, produce more single elements resulting in greater output and lower unit costs.

Cutting, polishing and array assembly will also be done at the production facility in Shanghai. Zecotek has a proprietary automated manufacturing process that uses robotics to assemble the LFS crystal arrays. The automated process will translate into faster manufacturing of arrays, and improve the performance of the arrays with repeatable uniformity and much greater accuracy.

Zecotek’s LFS series of scintillation crystals are protected in China and jurisdictions around globe by a worldwide patent (including US patent No. 7,132,060). The crystals cover a wide range of emission wavelengths which can be tailored to match the spectral sensitivity of various photo detectors including Zecotek’s own solid-state MAPD/T photo detector arrays.