Single-shot dual-energy sandwich detector can produce sharp images because of subtraction of images from two sub-detector layers, which have different thick x-ray converters, of the sandwich detector. Inspired by this observation, the authors have developed a microtomography system with the sandwich detector in pursuit of high-resolution bone-enhanced small-animal imaging. The preliminary results show that the bone-enhanced images reconstructed with the subtracted projection data are better in visibility of bone details than the conventionally reconstructed images. In addition, the bone-enhanced images obtained from the sandwich detector are relatively immune to the artifacts caused by photon starvation. The microtomography with the single-shot dual-energy sandwich detector will be useful for the high-resolution bone imaging.
KEYWORDS: Photons, X-rays, Sensors, Monte Carlo methods, X-ray detectors, Ray tracing, Algorithm development, X-ray computed tomography, X-ray imaging, Signal detection
We present a theoretical framework describing projections obtained from computed tomography systems considering physics of each component consisting of the systems. The projection model mainly consists of the attenuation of x-ray photons through objects including x-ray scatter and the detection of attenuated/scattered x-ray photons at pixel detector arrays. X-ray photons are attenuated by the Beers-Lambert law and scattered by using the Klein-Nishina formula. The cascaded signal-transfer model for the detector includes x-ray photon detection and light photon conversion/spreading in scintillators, light photon detection in photodiodes, and the addition of electronic noise quanta. On the other hand, image noise is considered by re-distributing the pixel signals in pixel-by-pixel ways at each image formation stage using the proper distribution functions. Instead of iterating the ray tracing over each energy bin in the x-ray spectrum, we first perform the ray tracing for an object only considering the thickness of each component. Then, we assign energy-dependent linear attenuation coefficients to each component in the projected images. This approach reduces the computation time by a factor of the number of energy bins in the x-ray spectrum divided by the number of components in the object compared with the conventional ray-tracing method. All the methods developed in this study are validated in comparisons with the measurements or the Monte Carlo simulations.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.