| DECTRIS | |
| Foundation: | 2006 |
| Hq Location: | Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland |
| Key People: | Matthias Schneebeli (CEO) |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Industry: | Electrical equipment |
| Products: | X-ray detectors |
| Num Employees: | 130 (2021)[1] |
Dectris Ltd (German: Dectris AG, French, Italian, Romansh: Dectris SA) is a Swiss company producing photon counting X-ray detectors. These are used in synchrotrons worldwide[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] as well as in laboratory imaging.[7]
Dectris was founded in 2006 as a spin-off company by Christian Brönnimann, a researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute, and three colleagues, Eric F. Eikenberry, Markus Näf, and Petr Salficky.[8] In 2007, the company sold its first detector unit in the PILATUS series. In 2008 the MYTHEN detector was introduced followed by the EIGER in 2015.[9] In January 2022, Christian Brönnimann, who had been CEO since 2006, stepped down and Matthias Schneebeli (CTO since 2017) became the new CEO.[10] [11]
Dectris mainly develops and produces hybrid photon counting X-ray detectors. Three different product lines have been launched which all take their names from Swiss mountains, Pilatus, Mythen, and Eiger. All detectors use direct detection, meaning that X-ray photons are directly converted to electron-hole pairs instead of using visible light as an intermediary. This improves efficiency significantly and enables much higher count rates.[12] Nearly two thirds of all structures in the Protein Data Bank have been solved using dectris detectors, legacy CCD detectors making up most of the rest.[13]
In recent years Dectris has developed and started producing electron detectors.