The prevalence of kidney stones has significantly risen among the elderly population in recent decades, with some countries experiencing rates approaching 15%. Due to high recurrence rates, analyzing stone composition is essential for recurrence prevention. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and conventional x-ray diffractometry (XRD) are used for this purpose, however, both methods are labor-intensive and require skilled operators, as stones need careful dissection and grinding. Many kidney stones have heterogeneous compositions, and even with spectroscopic analyses, error rates remain high. Despite improvements, challenges in stone sampling and tiny material amounts can still lead to inaccuracies. This prompts the question of how to better manage patients and potentially enhance recurrence prevention strategies despite the shift toward spectroscopic techniques in analytical labs. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of an in-house grating-based high-resolution x-ray phase-contrast μ-CT imaging system in characterizing kidney stones and their compositional analysis. Employing the reported compact benchtop x-ray phase-contrast μ-CT imaging system facilitates stone identification and analysis using additional quantitative data—phase and scattering—obtained from the emerging x-ray phase-contrast imaging system. Having the three sets of images—transmission, phase, and scattering—could potentially pave the way for an accurate and faster stone compositional analysis with clinical values in studying the pathophysiological mechanisms of kidney stone disease that could help improve the recurrence prevention rates.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Single photon emission computed tomography, Monte Carlo methods, Photon transport, Photodetectors, Modulation transfer functions, Spatial resolution, Point spread functions, Energy efficiency, Compton scattering
In this work, we have used Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the spatial resolution and detection efficiency metrics of an amorphous selenium (a-Se) photon-counting detector for high energy gamma-ray detection with 1mm and 50µm pixel pitches and a varying number of detector layers. A noiseless monochromatic particle gun with an energy of 140 keV is used to resemble the typical energy of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). At high energies like 140 keV, a-Se detection efficiency significantly drops due to its absorption coefficient. By using this novel multilayer a-Se detector, the drop in detection efficiency can be compensated. The point spread function (PSF) is obtained by illuminating the detector with 106 photons. The modulation transfer function (MTF) is calculated from the one-dimensional integral of the PSF, known as line spread function (LSF), and is compared to the ideal pixel MTF. Spatial resolution is considered as the spatial frequency at which the MTF is equal to 0.5. The simulation results indicate that by increasing the number of layers, the MTF was degraded slightly due to Compton scattering, however, it did not degrade spatial resolution for the 1mm pixel size. At the same time, by using more layers, the detection efficiency is increased to 80% for 10 layers. This detection efficiency includes the noise counts (error counts) caused by Compton scattering. Leveraging the photon-counting energy threshold enables partial compensation for noise counts. Using an energy threshold of 110 keV results in 52% efficiency for 10 layers and reduces the noise counts significantly. This increase in detection efficiency along with the high intrinsic spatial resolution makes a-Se a cost-effective candidate for large area SPECT applications.
In this work, we have evaluated the performance of a coded-aperture (edge-illumination) x-ray phase contrast imaging (CA-XPCi) system employing a high resolution x-ray detector with pixel pitch and size equal to 7.8 µm. Two of the main challenges concerning a high resolution x-ray detector employed in a CA-XPCi system that are fabrication of high resolution x-ray absorption masks and environmental vibration are addressed in this paper. We have investigated both the effect of absorption mask thicknesses and mechanical vibration on the performance of a high resolution CA-XPCi system employing a simulation tool based on a wave-optics model. It is demonstrated how the thickness of absorption mask affects the behavior of the CA-XPCi system when more than 30% of the incident x-ray is transmitted through the absorption masks. The behavior of the CA-XPCi system will change to propagation-based (PB) XPCi one when the transmitted portion of x-rays through absorption masks exceeds 60% of the incident beam. It is also highlighted how mechanical (environmental) vibration has an almost minor effect on CA-XPCi systems with big pixel sizes, however, it has a considerable impact on a CA-XPCi system when a high resolution detector is employed. Albeit a high resolution CA-XPCi system has not been yet realized in reality due to technological bottlenecks related to high resolution mask fabrication, this study provides a comprehensive analysis on the challenges we will face to use a high resolution x-ray detector with the current technology, thus they can be considered in future designs.
The aim of this study is to investigate and reveal the potential of employing a direct conversion amorphous selenium (a-Se) CMOS based high resolution x-ray detector in both propagation-based (PB) and edge illumination (EI) x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCi) techniques. Both PB-XPCi and EI-XPCi modalities are evaluated through a numerical model and are compared based on their contrast, edge-enhancement, visibility, and dose efficiency characteristics. It is demonstrated how EI-XPCi configuration outperforms the PB-XPCi one considering using the same x-ray source and detector. After highlighting the strength of EI-XPCi system and reviewing today’s XPCi technologies, absorption mask grating fabrication is addressed as the main challenge to upgrade and improve EI-XPCi setups to higher resolution detectors. Mammography is considered as a case study to elucidate the importance of employing a high resolution EI-XPCi technique for microcalcification detection through numerical simulation of a breast phantom.
Propagation-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging is the earliest developed phase-contrast X-ray imaging method, however, it requires mathematically intensive algorithms to retrieve phase information. For quantitative analysis, an algorithm called phase retrieval must be applied to the phase-contrast image to retrieve the phase information because the phase and the attenuation coefficient are encoded in the intensity values obtained by the detector. Phase retrieval is a nonlinear inverse technique used to estimate the object X-ray phase shift, thickness or electron density. Many of these phase retrieval methods have been developed assuming a monochromatic X-ray source, although some have been reported to work for a polychromatic X-ray source with some modifications. In this work, we compare seven reported phase retrieval methods for polychromatic sources using a weighted average to calculate the wavelength dependent parameters. Six of the methods compared are single distance approaches and one is an iterative approach that requires an absorption and phase-contrast image. These seven phase retrieval methods are compared for varying object thicknesses in the presence of a polychromatic source in simulation of different materials. The materials investigated in this work are polytetra uorethylene, polystyrene and Kapton. Overall, Paganin's method performed with the lowest relative error for all materials when a polychromatic source is applied to object thicknesses less than 400 microns.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Modulation transfer functions, X-rays, X-ray detectors, Prototyping, Signal to noise ratio, X-ray imaging, Signal detection, Photons, Selenium
An x-ray detector’s ability to produce high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) images for a given exposure is described by the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) as a function of spatial frequency. Current mammography and radiography detectors have poor DQE performance at high frequencies due to noise aliasing when using a high- resolution converter layer. The Apodized-Aperture Pixel (AAP) design is novel detector design that increases high-frequency DQE by removing noise aliasing using smaller sensor elements (eg. 5 - 50 μm) than image pixel size (eg. 50 - 200 μm). The purpose of this work is to implement the AAP design on a selenium (Se) CMOS micro-sensor prototype with 7.8 × 7.8 μm size elements. Conventional (binned) and AAP images with 47 μm pixel size were synthesized and used to measure the modulation transfer function (MTF), normalized Wiener noise power spectrum (NNPS) and DQE. A micro-focus x-ray source (with a tungsten target) and a 60kV beam filtered with 2mm of aluminum was used to measure performance with DQEPro (DQEInstruments Inc., London, Canada) in a dynamic image acquisition mode at a high exposure level (9.7mR). The AAP design has 1.5x greater MTF near the image cut-off frequency (uc = 10.6 cyc/mm) than conventional design. DQE near ucwas 2.5x greater with the AAP design than conventional, and specimen imaging of a kidney stone shows greater SNR of fine-detail in the AAP image.
A novel amorphous selenium (a-Se) direct detector with CMOS readout has been designed, and relative detector performance investigated. The detector features include a 25μm pixel pitch, and 1000μm thick a-Se layer operating at 10V/μm bias field. A simulated detector DQE was determined, and used in comparative calculations of the Relative Object Detectability (ROD) family of prewhitening matched-filter (PWMF) observer and non-pre-whitening matched filter (NPWMF) observer model metrics to gauge a-Se detector performance against existing high resolution micro-angiographic fluoroscopic (MAF) detectors and a standard flat panel detector (FPD). The PWMF-ROD or ROD metric compares two x-ray imaging detectors in their relative abilities in imaging a given object by taking the integral over spatial frequencies of the Fourier transform of the detector DQE weighted by an object function, divided by the comparable integral for a different detector. The generalized-ROD (G-ROD) metric incorporates clinically relevant parameters (focal- spot size, magnification, and scatter) to show the degradation in imaging performance for detectors that are part of an imaging chain. Preliminary ROD calculations using simulated spheres as the object predicted superior imaging performance by the a-Se detector as compared to existing detectors. New PWMF-G-ROD and NPWMF-G-ROD results still indicate better performance by the a-Se detector in an imaging chain over all sphere sizes for various focal spot sizes and magnifications, although a-Se performance advantages were degraded by focal spot blurring. Nevertheless, the a-Se technology has great potential to provide break- through abilities such as visualization of fine details including of neuro-vascular perforator vessels and of small vascular devices.
We have developed a high resolution amorphous selenium (a-Se) direct detection imager using a large-area compatible back-end fabrication process on top of a CMOS active pixel sensor having 25 micron pixel pitch. Integration of a-Se with CMOS technology requires overcoming CMOS/a-Se interfacial strain, which initiates nucleation of crystalline selenium and results in high detector dark currents. A CMOS-compatible polyimide buffer layer was used to planarize the backplane and provide a low stress and thermally stable surface for a-Se. The buffer layer inhibits crystallization and provides detector stability that is not only a performance factor but also critical for favorable long term cost-benefit considerations in the application of CMOS digital x-ray imagers in medical practice. The detector structure is comprised of a polyimide (PI) buffer layer, the a-Se layer, and a gold (Au) top electrode. The PI layer is applied by spin-coating and is patterned using dry etching to open the backplane bond pads for wire bonding. Thermal evaporation is used to deposit the a-Se and Au layers, and the detector is operated in hole collection mode (i.e. a positive bias on the Au top electrode). High resolution a-Se diagnostic systems typically use 70 to 100 μm pixel pitch and have a pre-sampling modulation transfer function (MTF) that is significantly limited by the pixel aperture. Our results confirm that, for a densely integrated 25 μm pixel pitch CMOS array, the MTF approaches the fundamental material limit, i.e. where the MTF begins to be limited by the a-Se material properties and not the pixel aperture. Preliminary images demonstrating high spatial resolution have been obtained from a frst prototype imager.
An amorphous selenium direct detector with a 25 μm pixel pitch is studied for mammography and fluoroscopy
applications. In this paper we analyze spatial resolution by examining the main contributions to the inherent
modulation transfer function (MTF) of amorphous selenium, such as primary photoelectron range and x-ray
beam obliquity; and determine their significance relative to aperture MTF. Improvements in spatial resolution
provided by a move to a small pixel size are complicated by deep carrier trapping. Trapped carriers cause residual
charge induction across the pixel plane. We examine the significance of this effect on spatial resolution. The
potential improvements of moving from a larger pixel pitch to a 25 μm pixel pitch are studied, including all
significant effects, at selected pixel pitches.
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