Area Detector Systems Corporation (ADSC) manufacturers and sells "area detectors" for use in xray crystallography - primarily to those engaged in research into the form and structure of proteins. Area detectors are used to record xray diffraction patterns from protein crystals. The data are then used to solve the molecular structure of the protein. The first technology, called a Multiwire Area Detector (MWAD), is the technology upon which our company was founded. In 1990, ADSC acquired the right to sell a second area detector technology, called an Image Plate (IP) - sold until the middle of 1996. Since then, the firm has been developing and manufacturing a third (and current) area detector technology using a Charge Coupled Device, or CCD. Customers originally were university laboratories and pharmaceutical company laboratories, where most of the research up to now have been carried out. Over the past three years or so, a significant changed has occurred in the field. In addition to the data collected in the lab, research groups are utilizing data collection facilities established at Synchrotron facilities. These facilities are expensive to build and maintain, but have a pure and extremely intense xray beam which researchers find most desirable. The high beam intensity favors the use of CCD detector technology for its fast readout speed over the very slow IP technology, and the tremendous increase in productivity of CCDs over the IPs easily justifies the higher price of the CCD detector versus the IP detector system.These synchrotron facilities are a growth area in protein crystallography research.
