Component analysis of a new Solid State X-ray Image Intensifier (SSXII) using photon transfer and Instrumentation Noise Equivalent Exposure (INEE) measurements.

Abstract

The SSXII is a novel x-ray imager designed to improve upon the performance limitations of conventional dynamic radiographic/fluoroscopic imagers related to resolution, charge-trapping, frame-rate, and instrumentation-noise. The SSXII consists of a CsI:Tl phosphor coupled via a fiber-optic taper (FOT) to an electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD). To facilitate investigational studies, initial designs enable interchangeability of such imaging components. Measurements of various component and configuration characteristics enable an optimization analysis with respect to overall detector performance. Photon transfer was used to characterize the EMCCD performance including ADC sensitivity, read-noise, full-well capacity and quantum efficiency. X-ray sensitivity was measured using RQA x-ray spectra. Imaging components were analyzed in terms of their MTF and transmission efficiency. The EMCCD was measured to have a very low effective read-noise of less than 1 electron rms at modest EMCCD gains, which is more than two orders-of-magnitude less than flat panel (FPD) and CMOS-based detectors. The variable signal amplification from 1 to 2000 times enables selectable sensitivities ranging from 8.5 (168) to over 15k (300k) electrons per incident x-ray photon with (without) a 4:1 FOT; these sensitivities could be readily increased with further component optimization. MTF and DQE measurements indicate the SSXII performance is comparable to current state-of-the-art detectors at low spatial frequencies and far exceeds them at higher spatial frequencies. The instrumentation noise equivalent exposure (INEE) was measured to be less than 0.3 μR out to 10 cycles/mm, which is substantially better than FPDs. Component analysis suggests that these improvements can be substantially increased with further detector optimization.