Abstract
Photon counting X-ray imagers have found their way into the mainstream scientific community in recent years, and have become important components in many scientific setups. These camera systems are in active development, with output data rates increasing significantly with every new generation of devices. A different class of PCD (Photon Counting Detector) devices has become generally available, where camera data output is no longer a matrix of photon counts but instead direct measurements of the deposited charge per pixel in every frame, which requires significant off-camera processing. This type of PCD, called a hyperspectral X-ray camera due to its fully spectroscopic output, yet again increases the demands put on the acquisition and processing backend. Not only are bandwidth requirements increased, but the need to do extensive data processing is also introduced with these hyperspectral PCD devices. To cope with these new developments the Spectral X-ray Imaging Data Acquisition framework (SpeXIDAQ) has been developed. All aspects of the imaging pipeline are handled by the SpeXIDAQ framework: from detector control and frame grabbing, to processing, storage and live visualisation during experiments.
Highlights
In recent years a new variant of photon counting X-ray sensors, the hyperspectral or fully energy resolving sensors, have become sufficiently mature to find their way into actual scientific and industrial applications
Due to their construction as full-field pixellated devices, these cameras allow for capture of chemical information in X-ray fluorescence (XRF) applications, and in full-field transmission imaging [1,2] and transmission computed tomography (CT) [3,4,5]
To counter the shortcomings of the current state, and to anticipate future developments in sensor capabilities, a new software framework was developed at Ghent University: the Spectral X-ray Imaging Data Acquisition framework, or SpeXIDAQ
Summary
In recent years a new variant of photon counting X-ray sensors, the hyperspectral or fully energy resolving sensors, have become sufficiently mature to find their way into actual scientific and industrial applications. Even at synchrotron and X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) [9] facilities hyperspectral cameras can be combined with established imaging techniques to enable novel experiments to take place, such as in hyperspectral dark-field Xray imaging [10], or hyperspectral ptychographic imaging [11] These hyperspectral systems provide new diagnostic tools for lab setups and beamlines, offering accurate measurement of source spectra and optics parameters, as demonstrated previously by the authors [12]. The emergence of hyperspectral X-ray sensors has required a departure from the conventional approach to operating X-ray imaging systems These sensors no longer only count the incoming photons on the device based on per pixel detection thresholds, but output the actual measured charge clusters in each frame and pixel, which can be reconstructed to accurate descriptions of single photon events. To counter the shortcomings of the current state, and to anticipate future developments in sensor capabilities, a new software framework was developed at Ghent University: the Spectral X-ray Imaging Data Acquisition framework, or SpeXIDAQ
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
