Evaluation of edge-illumination and propagation-based x-ray phase contrast imaging methods for high resolution imaging application

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate and reveal the potential of employing a direct conversion amorphous selenium (a-Se) CMOS based high resolution x-ray detector in both propagation-based (PB) and edge illumination (EI) x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCi) techniques. Both PB-XPCi and EI-XPCi modalities are evaluated through a numerical model and are compared based on their contrast, edge-enhancement, visibility, and dose efficiency characteristics. It is demonstrated how EI-XPCi configuration outperforms the PB-XPCi one considering using the same x-ray source and detector. After highlighting the strength of EI-XPCi system and reviewing today’s XPCi technologies, absorption mask grating fabrication is addressed as the main challenge to upgrade and improve EI-XPCi setups to higher resolution detectors. Mammography is considered as a case study to elucidate the importance of employing a high resolution EI-XPCi technique for microcalcification detection through numerical simulation of a breast phantom.