Australian cold cathode x-ray technology specialist Micro-X Ltd’s (ASX:MX1) US subsidiary, Micro-X Inc, has signed a contract with the U.S. Government’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the design of a Miniature X-Ray Baggage Scanner.
It is envisioned that the scanner may become the key component in an Airport Passenger Self-Screening Portal to be developed under a separate contract.
This second contract signing follows on from Micro-X’s earlier contract with DHS for the integrated Portal Design and similarly flows from the two Micro-X proposals which were selected for award under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA).
Key Points
Micro-X, Inc. has formally signed a contract with U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) for up to US$1,569,059 for a period of 18 months, subject to satisfactory delivery against milestones.
This Scanner Contract is for the second of the two proposals selected for award to Micro-X under BAA. Micro-X Inc. has been contracted to design and manufacture a robust prototype of a miniaturized, x-ray CT baggage scanner for the self-screening portal.
Micro-X Inc. will deliver the prototype scanner to S&T for independent testing and evaluation.
Aviation security globally is moving toward increased use of CT baggage scanners for screening of passengers’ carryon luggage.
This move reflects the advantages of three-dimensional images produced by CT which leads to improvements in security and the potential to deploy more advanced automated threat detection software. This also may remove the need for passengers to divest large electronic devices and liquids from their carryon bags.
Currently, conventional CT baggage scanners are large, complex, and expensive to deploy at the checkpoint, so these systems may struggle to address the key checkpoint challenges of passenger throughput, passenger experience, and available floor space at the checkpoint.
An airport passenger self-screening checkpoint concept has the potential to solve many of the current limitations of the conventional checkpoint, potentially increasing passenger throughput at the airport, improving their passenger experience, reducing security floor-space requirements, and reducing through-life operational costs.
However, a self-screening checkpoint is only possible when the method of scanning the passengers’ carryon bags is at least the same level of security as current, conventional x-ray checkpoint screening.
Micro-X’s Managing Director, Peter Rowland, said the company believes that its unique CNT x-ray technology can deliver a miniaturised CT baggage scanner that enables a full-scale passenger self-screening checkpoint while also providing a three-dimensional baggage scanning solution for the smaller or older airports where space constraints prevent the current, large conventional CT screening units.
Micro-X will work with S&T’s Screening at Speed Program to define a prototype specification and design to this specification. S&T will then test the prototype to evaluate the potential of the scanner to achieve the necessary security requirements.
Broader market opportunities
Micro-X will be investing beyond the requirements of this Scanner Contract to deliver a more advanced prototype scanner which is closer to a final product.
This is to enable the rapid development of a simplified variant of the scanner unit which leverages the same basic system architecture and components as used in the core S&T design, but which is optimised for commercial security applications outside the airport.
Micro-X sees potential applications of the Miniaturized Baggage Scanner to meet many different commercial security needs such as stadiums, public events, government and commercial buildings, as well as public transport systems.
To that end, Micro-X Inc has recently signed a technical and marketing collaboration agreement with Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd which has developed HEXWAVE, a next generation, high throughput, contactless threat detection system, for concealed metallic and non-metallic objects, using AI to provide automated decisions to the security operators to process people at speed.
Micro-X Inc and Liberty Defense will explore a potential combined technology offering with Liberty’s HEXWAVE walk-through screening portal for enhanced body and baggage screening in commercial security settings by undertaking market research and collecting customer feedback.
“The genesis of this contract award can be traced back to the work which Micro-X did for the UK Government’s Department for Transport at Heathrow airport, under the Future Aviation Security Solutions program in developing an x-ray scanner to meet the challenge of “Finding Explosives Hidden in Electronic Items,” Mr Rowland said.
“In meeting the far-sighted requirements under these contracts Micro-X was able to show the imaging power of its CNT technology in the miniaturised unit we demonstrated to stakeholders in London. From that demonstration the idea of its application to a self-service checkpoint was born.
“We’re very excited that now this unique miniaturised scanner technology has become the enabler for a radical new approach to airport checkpoint security in the United States which will hugely benefit travellers once it is in place. The small size of this unit opens up many other applications as well where conventional x-ray screening lanes are not practical.”