Investigation of signal thresholding to reduce the effects of instrument noise of an EMCCD based micro-CT system

Alexander R. Podgorsak; Sumukh Bysani Krishnakumar; S. V. Setlur Nagesh; Daniel R. Bednarek; Stephen Rudin; Ciprian N. Ionita

doi:10.1117/12.2216272

29 March 2016 Investigation of signal thresholding to reduce the effects of instrument noise of an EMCCD based micro-CT system

Alexander R. Podgorsak, Sumukh Bysani Krishnakumar, S. V. Setlur Nagesh, Daniel R. Bednarek, Stephen Rudin, Ciprian N. Ionita

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Proceedings Volume 9788, Medical Imaging 2016: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 978803 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2216272
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2016, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This project investigated the signal thresholding effectiveness at reducing the instrument noise of an electron multiplying charged coupled device (EMCCD) based micro-CT system at low x-ray exposure levels. Scans of a mouse spine and an iodine phantom were taken using an EMCCD detector coupled with a micro-CT system. An iodine filter of 4 mg/cm² area density was placed in the beam. The output signal was thresholded using some multiple of the inherent background noise. For each threshold, 100, 200, and 300 frames were summed for each projection to evaluate the effect on the reconstructed image. The projection images from the scans were compared using line profiles and their SNR. Our results indicate that, as the threshold was increased, the line profiles of the projection images showed less statistical variation, but also lower signal levels, so that the SNR of the projection images decreased as the threshold increased. When the line profile of a projection image obtained using a signal threshold is compared with one obtained using energy integrating mode, the profile obtained using thresholding had less variation than that obtained using energy integration, which indicates less instrument noise. The SNR at the edges of the scan object is higher in the thresholded images when compared with the energy integrated projection images. We conclude that thresholding the output signal from an EMCCD detector at low x-ray exposure levels is an effective method to reduce the instrument noise of an EMCCD detector.

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Alexander R. Podgorsak, Sumukh Bysani Krishnakumar, S. V. Setlur Nagesh, Daniel R. Bednarek, Stephen Rudin, and Ciprian N. Ionita "Investigation of signal thresholding to reduce the effects of instrument noise of an EMCCD based micro-CT system", Proc. SPIE 9788, Medical Imaging 2016: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 978803 (29 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2216272

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KEYWORDS

Signal to noise ratio

Electron multiplying charge coupled devices

Iodine

Sensors

Interference (communication)

X-rays

Signal detection

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