Rigaku's CT Lab HR160 X-ray CT system resolves 250 nm features in batteries and chips

Rigaku Corporation sells the CT Lab HR160, a high-resolution X-ray computed tomography system built for non-destructive 3D imaging of battery cells, semiconductor devices, electronic components, and advanced materials. The system was developed with Excillum AB and pairs Rigaku's CT imaging platform with Excillum's NanoTube N3 X-ray source, running at up to 160 kV to accommodate a range of sample types and densities.

The headline spec is resolution: Rigaku says the CT Lab HR160 achieves true 250 nm spatial resolution, which the company calls "industry-leading" for CT systems in its class. That figure matters because it puts sub-micron internal defects, the kind that show up in multilayer ceramic capacitors or solid-state battery electrodes, within reach of a lab-based system rather than requiring synchrotron time. The system uses cone-beam geometry, which lets an operator change field of view and resolution without swapping the X-ray source or detector. Engineers running mixed sample queues, batteries one day, MLCCs the next, will care about skipping a hardware reconfiguration between jobs.

Rigaku positions the CT Lab HR160 for research, development, quality evaluation, and failure analysis on solid-state batteries, semiconductor devices, multilayer ceramic capacitors, and power electronics. As those components shrink and pack more functional layers into less volume, internal inspection has become a harder problem for conventional lab CT hardware to solve at the resolution engineers now need.

The collaboration pairs Rigaku's CT expertise with Excillum's source technology rather than Rigaku building the tube in-house. "CT Lab HR160 gives customers a new option for addressing increasingly complex analytical challenges in advanced materials and electronic devices," said Kiyoshi Ogata, General Manager of the Product Division at Rigaku. Sara Haack, Chief Commercial Officer at Excillum, framed it as a two-way technology transfer: "This collaboration brings together the strengths of both companies and creates new opportunities to support R&D and manufacturing at the forefront of advanced industries."