Cascaded-systems analysis of sandwich x-ray detectors

Abstract

Active sandwich-like multilayer detectors have been developed, and their potential for motion-artifact-free dual-energy x-ray imaging at a single exposure has been demonstrated in the material decomposition context. Since the sandwich detector uses the x-ray beam transmittance through the front layer, direct x-ray interaction within photodiodes in the front layer is unavoidable, and which can increase noise in the front detector images. Similar direct x-ray interaction can also occur in the rear detector layer. To obtain a better contrast performance, an additional filter layer can be placed between the two detector layers. However, this filter layer can increase adversely noise in images obtained from the rear detector layer by reducing the number of x-ray photons reaching it. A theoretical model, which can describe the signal-to-noise performance of the sandwich detector as functions of various design parameters, has been developed by using a linear cascaded-systems theory. From the cascaded-systems analysis, the direct x-ray interaction increases noise at the high spatial frequencies where the number of secondary quanta lessens. The intermediate filter layer enhances the contribution of additive electronic noise in the overall noise performance of the rear detector layer. The detailed cascaded-systems analysis on the x-ray sandwich detectors are reported in comparisons with the measured noise-power spectra and detective quantum efficiencies. The developed model will be useful for a better design and practical use of a sandwich detector for single-shot dual-energy imaging.