| 1. |
- Badel, Xavier, et al.
(författare)
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Improvement of an X-ray imaging detector based on a scintillating guides screen
- 2002
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 487:1-2, s. 129-135
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An X-ray imaging detector has been developed for dental applications. The principle of this detector is based on application of a silicon charge coupled device covered by a scintillating wave-guide screen. Previous studies of such a detector showed promising results concerning the spatial resolution but low performance in terms of signal to noise ratio (SNR) and sensitivity. Recent results confirm the wave-guiding properties of the matrix and show improvement of the detector in terms of response uniformity, sensitivity and SNR. The present study is focussed on the fabrication of the scintillating screen where the principal idea is to fill a matrix of Si pores with a CsI scintillator. The photoluminescence technique was used to prove the wave-guiding property of the matrix and to inspect the filling uniformity of the pores. The final detector was characterized by X-ray evaluation in terms of spatial resolution, light output and SNR. A sensor with a spatial resolution of 9 LP/mm and a SNR over 50 has been achieved using a standard dental X-ray source and doses in the order of those used at the moment by dentists (around 25 mR).
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| 2. |
- Badel, Xavier, et al.
(författare)
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Metallized and oxidized silicon macropore arrays filled with a scintillator for CCD-based X-ray imaging detectors
- 2004
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. - : IEEE. - 0018-9499 .- 1558-1578. ; 51:3, s. 1001-1005, s. 1006-1010
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Silicon charge-coupled devices (CCDs) covered with a scintillating film are now available on the market for use in digital medical imaging. However, these devices could still be improved in terms of sensitivity and especially spatial resolution by coating the CCD with an array of scintillating waveguides. In this paper, such waveguides were fabricated by first etching pores in silicon, then performing metallization or oxidation of the pore walls and finally filling the pores with CsI(TI). The resulting structures were observed using scanning electron microscopy and tested under X-ray exposure. Theoretical efficiencies of macropore arrays filled with CsI(TI) were also calculated, indicating that the optimal pore depth for metallized macropore arrays is about 80 mum while it is around 350 mum for oxidized ones. This result, together with the roughness of the metal coating, explains why lower SNR values were measured with the metallized macropores. Indeed, the macropore arrays had depths in the range of 210-390 mum, which is favorable to oxidized structures.
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| 3. |
- Badel, Xavier, et al.
(författare)
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Performance of scintillating waveguides for CCD-based X-ray detectors
- 2006
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. - 0018-9499 .- 1558-1578. ; 53:1, s. 3-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scintillating films are usually used to improve the sensitivity of CCD-based X-ray imaging detectors. For an optimal spatial resolution and detection efficiency, a tradeoff has to be made on the film thickness. However, these scintillating layers can also be structured to provide a pixellated screen. In this paper, the study of CsI(TI)-filled pore arrays is reported. The pores are first etched in silicon, then oxidized and finally filled with CsI(TI) to form scintillating waveguides. The dependence of the detector sensitivity on pore depth, varied from 40 to 400 mu m here, follows rather well theoretical predictions. Most of the detectors produced in this work have a detective quantum efficiency of the incoming X-ray photons of about 25%. However, one detector shows that higher efficiency can be achieved approaching almost the theoretical limit set by Poisson statistics of the incoming X-rays. Thus, we conclude that it is possible to fabricate scintillating waveguides with almost ideal performance. Imaging capabilities of the detectors are demonstrated.
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