Micro-collimator fabricated by alpha-particle irradiation of polyallyldiglycol carbonate polymer film and subsequent chemical etching

In the present paper, we propose a method to fabricate a "micro-collimator" with a thickness of 15mm. A commercially available PADC film with a thickness of 100mm was first chemically etched with NaOH/ethanol solution to obtain a thin PADC film. This thin PADC film was then irradiated by 5MeV a particles through a "macro-collimator" with a thickness of 5mm and a hole diameter of 1mm. This PADC film with latent tracks was then further etched in aqueous NaOH solution to form the micro-collimator with a thickness of 15mm and etched-through air channels were all confined to a circular area with 1mm diameter. Verifications were performed by checking the etched a-particle tracks formed on a test PADC film from a particles having traveled through a 20mm support substrate attached to the 15mm micro-collimator (both substrate and micro-collimator also made of PADC). The results are discussed. © 2009 Elsevier B.V.