CZT detector in multienergy x-ray imaging with different pixel sizes and pitches: Monte Carlo simulation studies

Abstract

A photon counting detector based on semiconductor materials is a very promising approach for x-ray imaging. Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) semiconductor has a high atomic number which results in higher absorption coefficients for x-rays. However, the CZT detectors exhibit several problems with hole trapping and charge sharing. Charge sharing occurs due to diffusion of charge and characteristic x-ray escape and scattered x-rays in the detectors. In this study, we evaluated the effect of interaction with CZT detector using Monte Carlo simulations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of CZT detector in clinical application, we reported confirmation of CNR improvement in K-edge images, and material decomposition using energy selective windows. X-ray energy spectrum acquired at 120 kVp tube voltage and 2 mm Al filtration and 10 cm added water phantom in the x-ray beam. Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) version 6.0 was used for a CZT crystal with size of 10x10 mm² and thickness of 4 mm. The detector pixel with sizes of 0.09x0.09, 0.45x0.45, and 0.90x0.90 mm² were simulated. For all pixel sizes, the x-ray spectra of the simulations were distorted towards the lower energy region. Because the characteristic x-rays add counts in the range of 20-40 keV. The magnitude of this deterioration is substantial for small pixel sizes. However, we demonstrated that the distortion of spectrum does not greatly affect the x-ray imaging. The GATE simulation model and these results may be used as a basis of development of energy-resolved photon counting x-ray detector. We believe that the CZT detector may enhance the detectability of multi-energy x-ray imaging.