X-ray Diffraction

X-ray powder diffraction patterns provide a fingerprint for the identification of the crystal structure of a specific compound, and are generally included within the claims of a patent. These patterns are widely used to determine whether a new product infringes on an existing patent, or represents a different polymorphic form.

Alan Goldman - Founder

I’ve served as an x-ray diffraction expert in patent litigation involving pharmaceuticals and advanced materials for the past 10 years, and have used a wide variety of x-ray and neutron scattering techniques in my academic research on advanced materials for over 30 years.

In addition to conventional x-ray diffraction methods, I make use of major US facilities known as x-ray synchrotron sources.  Synchrotron radiation enables high-precision measurements because of the astonishing increase in x-ray flux (a million times more than conventional x-ray sources) and high intrinsic angular resolution. Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction is the best probe for establishing whether a particular compound or polymorph is present in a sample, with a limit-of-detection 10-100 times smaller than conventional x-ray sources.