The authors have developed a sandwich-like multilayer detector capable of imaging a large field of view. Two detector layers use the same photodiode arrays based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor active pixel technology while the scintillators of the front and rear detectors are composed of Gd2O2S : Tb and CsI : Tl, respectively. The front detector is implemented on a flexible printed-circuit board (FPCB) that is electrically connected to a corresponding control/readout PCB located under the rear detector’s control/readout PCB. The energy separation between two detector layers can be improved by using additional interlayer filters. Imaging performance of each detector layer is investigated for various filter designs. The imaging performance is evaluated in terms of large-area signal and noise, modulation-transfer function, noise-power spectrum, and detective quantum efficiency.
Sandwich-like multilayer detectors can measure dual-energy images at a single x-ray shot and the resulting images are free from the motion artifacts. In case of phosphor-coupled photodiode detector-based multilayer detectors, the direct x-ray interaction within the front photodiode layer can be a significant noise source. In this study, we propose to use a fiber-optic faceplate (FOP) between the front phosphor and photodiode layers, instead of the intermediate metal filter between the front and rear detector layers. This detector design is based on the fact that the FOP can reduce the probability of direct interaction of x-ray photons with the front photodiode as well as prevent x-ray photons with lower energies from reaching the rear detector layer. We develop a cascaded-systems model to describe the signal and noise characteristics in multilayer detector designs with the FOP. With the developed model, we investigate the imaging performance of the proposed detector designs for various FOP thicknesses in comparisons with the experimental measurements. The cascaded-systems analysis and demonstration dual-energy images of a postmortem mouse show that the proposed design is feasible for dual-energy imaging.
Dual-energy imaging method has been introduced to improve conspicuity of abnormalities in radiographs. The method typically uses the fast kilovoltage-switching approach, which acquires low and high-energy projections in successive x-ray exposures with the same detector. However, it is typically known that there exists an optimal detector thickness regarding specific imaging tasks or energies used. In this study, the dual-energy detectability has been theoretically addressed for various combinations of detector thicknesses for low and high-energy spectra using the cascaded-systems analysis. Cesium iodide (CsI) is accounted for the x-ray converter in the hypothetical detector. The simple prewhitening model shows that a larger CsI thickness (250 mg cm-2 for example) would be preferred to the the typical CsI thickness of 200 mg cm-2 for better detectability. On the other hand, the typical CsI thickness is acceptable for the prewhitening model considering human-eye filter. The theoretical strategy performed in this study will be useful for a better design of detectors for dual-energy imaging.
The actual meaning of the modulation-transfer function (MTF) and the noise-power spectrum (NPS) is ambiguous in dual-energy images obtained from the single-shot sandwich detector, and their properties for various detector design parameters are also being questioned. In this study, the authors regard the sandwich detector including weighted logarithmic subtraction operation as a single black-box detector, and measure the single-shot dual-energy MTF and NPS performances. Subtraction of two images obtained from the sub-detector layers, which have different thick x-ray converters (hence, different spatial-resolution performances), of the sandwich detector yields a band-pass filter characteristic of the MTF. On the other hand, the NPS is the weighted sum of each NPS obtained from the sub-detector layers. The MTF characteristic is reflected into the DQE, hence the DQE shows a similar band-pass filter characteristics. Therefore, the sandwich detector may lose the contrast performance for large-area objects, but it may emphasize the contrast performance for objects with importance at mid-frequency information.
We have developed a novel sandwich-style single-shot (single-kV) detector by stacking two indirect-conversion flat-panel detectors for preclinical mouse imaging. In the sandwich detector structure, extra noise due to the direct x-ray absorption in photodiode arrays is inevitable. We develop a simple cascaded linear-systems model to describe signal and noise propagation in the flat-panel sandwich detector considering direct x-ray interactions. The noise-power spectrum (NPS) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) obtained from the front and rear detectors are analyzed by using the cascaded-systems model. The NPS induced by the absorption of direct x-ray photons that are unattenuated within the photodiode layers is white in the spatial-frequency domain like the additive readout noise characteristic; hence that is harmful to the DQE at higher spatial frequencies at which the number of secondary quanta lessens. The model developed in this study will be useful for determining the optimal imaging techniques with sandwich detectors and their optimal design.
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