[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 218 (Wednesday, November 12, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64126-64127]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-28283]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division


Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and 
Production Act of 1993--XSEC Consortium

    Notice is hereby given that, on October 1, 2003, pursuant to 
Section 6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 
1993, 15 U.S.C. 4301 et seq. (``the Act''), XSEC Consortium has filed 
written notifications simultaneously with the Attorney General and the 
Federal Trade Commission disclosing (1) the identities of the parties 
and (2) the nature and objectives of the venture. The notifications 
were filed for the purpose of invoking the Act's provisions limiting 
the recovery of antitrust plaintiff to actual damages under specified 
circumstances. Pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Act, the identities of 
the parties are Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Mountain View, CA; and 
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Palo Alto, CA. The nature and 
objectives of the venture are to develop two types of novel, high 
performance, low cost x-ray detectors, first for diffraction scanning 
of checked bags for explosives and contraband, and second for computed 
tomography (CT) scanning of large seaborne cargo containers. The first 
type of detector will be a flat panel photoconductor x-ray detector of 
approximate area 5 cm x 25 cm capable of detecting individual x-ray 
photons and measuring their energy. These detectors will be used to 
build a subscale laboratory test apparatus for a diffraction-based 
explosive detector suitable for later scale-up to a size appropriate 
for airport screening of checked bags. The second type of detector will 
be a large area thin film transistor (TFT) panel detector for detecting 
the flux or x-ray photons incident upon it but without energy

[[Page 64127]]

measurement capability. Here the requirement is to produce TFT panels 
at sufficiently low cost to enable very large detectors several meters 
in extent to be assembled for CT scanning of cargo containers. Jet 
printing techniques will be developed to enable wax masks to be used 
during fabrication of the TFT arrays to reduce their manufacturing 
cost.

Dorothy B. Fountain,
Deputy Director of Operations, Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 03-28283 Filed 11-10-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-11-M