| 1. |
- Bornefalk, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Necessary forward model specification accuracy for basis material decomposition in spectral CT
- 2014
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2014. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9780819498267 ; , s. 90332I-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Material basis decomposition in the sinogram domain requires accurate knowledge of the forward model in spectral CT. Misspecifications over a certain limit will result in biased estimates and make quantum limited quantitative CT difficult. We present a method whereby users can determine the degree of allowed misspecification error in a spectral CT forward model, and still have quantification errors that are quantum limited.
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| 2. |
- Brunskog, Rickard, et al.
(författare)
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Experimental Evaluation of a Micron-Resolution CT Detector
- 2024
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2024: Physics of Medical Imaging. - : SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Current photon-counting detectors are limited to a pixel size of 0.3 mm-1 mm, as decreasing the pixel size further generally introduces degraded dose efficiency and energy resolution from excessive charge sharing. In this work, we present experimental measurements of the first photon-counting detector prototype designed to leverage the charge sharing to estimate the photon interaction position, where simulations indicate a theoretical resolution of around 1 µm using a similar geometry. The goal of the measurements is to validate our Monte-Carlo simulation for further development. Approach: DAC sweeps are performed with an X-ray beam at specified locations on the sensor front, with the beam at 20 keV and 35 keV, as well as with different sensor biases with the beam at 35 keV. The experimental data are then compared to a Monte Carlo simulation combined with a charge transport model. In this first prototype wire bonds are used, and as such only a few channels are connected. Results: The experimental data agree generally well with the simulated data with the beam close to the electrodes, with the simulated data diverging from the experiments with the beam further away from the electrodes. The induced charge cloud signal exhibits a fairly linear dependency on the beam position, indicating that any estimation techniques will yield more precise position when the photon interacts further away from the electrodes, rather than closer. Conclusions: With the experimental data and the simulations agreeing generally well, together with the same software previously indicating a resolution of around 1 µm, we expect an ultra-high-resolution detector to be in reach, and are encouraged to continue development.
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| 3. |
- Daniel, Maxime, et al.
(författare)
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Charge collection efficiency of CdTe detectors : Impact of charge collection time and polarisation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2023. - : SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is one of the materials used in photon-counting detectors for x-ray computed tomography. One challenge with this material is that it is susceptible to polarisation due to holes being trapped in impurities in the material. This can potentially lead to the buildup of bulk charge in the semiconductor, causing decreased charge collection efficiency and degraded energy resolution. In this work, we develop a simulation model of CdTe detectors with polarisation and use it to study the effect of polarisation on the measured energy spectrum for different charge collection times. To this end, we use a theoretical model of charge buildup to find the critical charge in the detector's bulk above which the detector can be considered completely polarised. We then simulate a 320-by-270-by-1600 μm CdTe detector used in CT clinical imaging, for varying degrees of polarisation (ratio between the actual charge and the critical charge) and charge collection time. Our results show that the measured spectrum gets heavily distorted for large degrees of polarisation or for short charge collection time. We also put these results in context by discussing how they relate to the critical fluence rate and the time of flight of the charge carriers. These results can lead to improved simulation models of CdTe detectors and a better understanding the factors affecting their imaging performance.
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| 4. |
- Liu, Xuejin, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of a silicon strip detector for photon-counting spectral CT using monoenergetic photons from 40 keV to 120 keV
- 2014
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2014. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9780819498267 ; , s. 90333O-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: We are developing a segmented silicon strip detector that operates in photon-counting mode and allows pulse-height discrimination with 8 adjustable energy bins. In this work, we determine the energy resolution of the detector using monoenergetic x-ray radiation from 40 keV to 120 keV. We further investigate the effects of pulse pileup and charge sharing between detector channels that may lead to a decreased energy resolution. Methods: For each incident monochromatic x-ray energy, we obtain count spectra at different photon fluxes. These spectra corresponds to the pulse-height response of the detector and allow the determination of energy resolution and charge-sharing probability. The energy resolution, however, is influenced by signal pileup and charge sharing. Both effects are quantified using Monte Carlo simulations of the detector that aim to reproduce the conditions during the measurements. Results: The absolute energy resolution is found to increase from 1.7 to 2.1 keV for increasing energies 40 keV to 120 keV at the lowest measured photon flux. The effect of charge sharing is found to increase the absolute energy resolution by a factor of 1.025 at maximum. This increase is considered as negligibly small. The pileup of pulses leads to a deterioration rate of the energy resolution of 4 · 10-3 keV Mcps-1 mm2, corresponding to an increase of 0.04keV per 10 Mcps increase of the detected count rate.
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| 5. |
- Liu, Xuejin, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling the channel-wise count response of a photon-counting spectral CT detector to a broad x-ray spectrum
- 2015
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2015: Physics of Medical Imaging. - : SPIE. - 9781628415025
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variations among detector channels in CT very sensitively lead to ring artefacts in the reconstructed images. For material decomposition in the projection domain, the variations can result in intolerable biases in the material line integral estimates. A typical way to overcome these effects is to apply calibration methods that try to unify spectral responses from different detector channels to an ideal response from a detector model. However, the calibration procedure can be rather complex and require excessive calibration measurements for a multitude of combinations of x-ray shapes, tissue combinations and thicknesses. In this paper, we propose a channel-wise model for a multibin photon-counting detector for spectral CT. Predictions of this channel-wise model match well with their physical performances, which can thus be used to eliminate ring artefacts in CT images and achieve projection-basis material decomposition. In an experimental validation, image data show significant improvement with respect to ring artefacts compared to images calibrated with flat-fielding data. Projection-based material decomposition gives basis material images showing good separation among individual materials and good quantification of iodine and gadolinium contrast agents. The work indicates that the channel-wise model can be used for quantitative CT with this detector.
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| 6. |
- Persson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Energy-resolved CT imaging with a photon-counting silicon-strip detector
- 2014
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2014. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9780819498267 ; , s. 90333L-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photon-counting detectors are promising candidates for use in the next generation of x-ray CT scanners. Among the foreseen benefits are higher spatial resolution, better trade-off between noise and dose, and energy discriminating capabilities. Silicon is an attractive detector material because of its low cost, mature manufacturing process and high hole mobility. However, it is sometimes claimed to be unsuitable for use in computed tomography because of its low absorption efficiency and high fraction of Compton scatter. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that high-quality energy-resolved CT images can nonetheless be acquired with clinically realistic exposure parameters using a photon-counting silicon-strip detector with eight energy thresholds developed in our group. We use a single detector module, consisting of a linear array of 50 0.5 × 0.4 mm detector elements, to image a phantom in a table-top lab setup. The phantom consists of a plastic cylinder with circular inserts containing water, fat and aqueous solutions of calcium, iodine and gadolinium, in different concentrations. We use basis material decomposition to obtain water, calcium, iodine and gadolinium basis images and demonstrate that these basis images can be used to separate the different materials in the inserts. We also show results showing that the detector has potential for quantitative measurements of substance concentrations.
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| 7. |
- Persson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Quantification of ring artifact visibility in CT
- 2012
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2012. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9780819489623 ; , s. 83132J-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ring artifacts appear in computed tomography images if there are too large inhomogeneities between different detector elements. The question of how large inhomogeneities are acceptable is gaining in importance due to the development of energy discriminating photon counting CT, where detector homogeneity is an important design parameter. We propose using the systematic-to-statistical error quotient q, defined as the variance of the expected log-normalized count number between detector elements (dels) divided by the variance of log-normalized count numbers measured with the same del, as a metric of ring artifact visibility. With a simple observer study using simulated images, it is shown that rings are visible in the reconstructed image if q exceeds a threshold which lies close to 1.2·10 -3 for 1500 detector elements and 2000 projection angles. It is also shown by visual inspection of simulated images that the threshold value is, to a good approximation, inversely proportional to the number of angle measurements and independent of the number of detector elements. The results suggest that a simple oberver study, together with these scaling relationships, is sufficient for establishing sinogram homogeneity requirements for a particular reconstruction method.
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| 8. |
- Persson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Resolution improvement in x-ray imaging with an energy-resolving detector
- 2017
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2017. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 9781510607095
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In x-ray imaging, improving spatial resolution is an important goal, but developing detectors with smaller pixels is technically challenging. We demonstrate a technique for improving the spatial resolution by utilizing the fact that linear attenuation coefficients of all substances within the human body can be expressed, to a good approximation, as a linear combination of two basis functions, or three if there is iodine contrast present in the image. When the x rays pass an interface parallel to the beam direction, the exponential attenuation law makes the linear attenuation coefficient measured by the detector a nonlinear combination of the linear attenuation coefficients on each side of the interface. This so-called nonlinear partial volume effect causes the spectral response to be dependent on the steepness of interfaces in the imaged volume. In this work, we show how this effect can be used to improve the spatial resolution in spectral projection x-ray imaging and quantify the achievable resolution improvement. We simulate x-ray transmission imaging of sharp and gradual changes in the projected path length of iodine contrast with an ideal energy-resolving photon-counting detector and demonstrate that the slope of the transition can be determined from the registered spectrum. We simulate piecewise-linear transitions and show that the algorithm is able to reproduce the transition profile on a subpixel scale. The FWHM resolution of the method is 5-30 % of the pixel width. The results show that an energy-resolving detector can be used to improve spatial resolution when imaging interfaces of highly attenuating objects.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Sundberg, Christel, et al.
(författare)
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1 mu m Spatial Resolution in Silicon Photon-Counting CT Detectors by Measuring Charge Diffusion
- 2020
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Ingår i: MEDICAL IMAGING 2020: PHYSICS OF MEDICAL IMAGING. - : SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING. - 9781510633926
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the existing prototype detector systems for full-field photon-counting CT is a silicon detector developed by our group. Spatial resolution is clinically important to resolve small details and can enable more efficient phase-contrast imaging. However, improving the resolution is difficult as decreasing the pixel size is associated with technical challenges. By integrating CMOS electronics into the silicon sensor, it is possible to reduce the pixel size drastically while also introducing on-sensor data processing capabilities. In this work, we evaluate the feasibility of measuring the charge cloud shape of Compton interactions in a silicon strip detector to increase the spatial resolution. With an incident spectrum of 140 kVp, Compton interactions constitute 66.2% of the detected interactions. By combining a Monte Carlo photon simulation with a charge transport model, we study the charge cloud distributions and induced currents as functions of the interaction position. For a simulated silicon strip detector with a pixel size of 12x500 mu m(2), we present a method in which the interaction position can be determined. For an ideal case without electronic noise an average absolute error of 0.65 mu m is obtained in the direction along the wafer and 13.08 mu m in the trans-wafer direction. With simulated electronic noise and a lowest threshold of 0.88 keV the corresponding values are 1.38 mu m and 122.83 mu m. Our results show that the proposed method has the potential to very significantly increase the spatial resolution in a full-field photon-counting detector for CT.
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