Digital Radiography:

Halima Kabeer
Digital Radiography:
 Digital radiography is more efficient in time, space,
and personnel than screen-film radiography.
 DR have capture element, coupling element, and
collection element.
 The capture element is that in which the x-ray is
captured. In computed radiography (CR), the capture
element is the photo stimulable phosphor.
 In the other DR modes, the capture element may be
sodium iodide (NaI), cesium iodide (CsI), gadolinium
oxysulfide (GdOS), or amorphous selenium (a-Se).
Cont..
 The coupling element is that which transfers the
x-ray–generated signal to the collection element.
 The coupling element may be a lens or fiber
optic assembly, a contact layer, or a-Se.

 The collection element may be a photodiode, a

charge-coupled device (CCD), or a thin-film
transistor (TFT).
 The photodiode and the CCD are light-sensitive
devices that collect light photons. The TFT is a
charge sensitive device that collects electrons.
Scanned Projection Radiography:
 During the 1980s and the early 1990s, SPR was developed
for dedicated chest DR (Figure 16-4).
 The principal advantage of SPR was collimation to a fan x-
ray with associated scatter radiation rejection and
improvement in image contrast.
 In SPR, the x-ray beam is collimated to a fan by prepatient
collimators.
 Postpatient image-forming x-rays likewise are collimated
to a fan that corresponds to the detector array—a
scintillation phosphor, usually NaI or CsI—and is married to
a linear array of CCDs through a fiberoptic light path.
Cont..
 This development was not very successful
because chest anatomy has high subject contrast,
so scatter radiation rejection is not all that
important. Furthermore, the scanning motion
required several seconds, resulting in motion blur.
 At the present time, SPR is reemerging with some
modification as a promising adjunct to digital
radiographic tomo synthesis (DRT).
 The purpose of all forms of tomography is to
improve image contrast, and that is the goal of
DRT.
Charged Couple Device:
 The CCD was developed in the 1970s as a
highly light sensitive device for military use. It
has since that time found major application in
astronomy and digital photography.
 The CCD, which is the light-sensing element
for most digital cameras, has three principal
advantageous imaging characteristics:
sensitivity, dynamic range, and size.
 The CCD has higher sensitivity for radiation
and a much wider dynamic range than screen-
film image receptors.
Cont..
 The CCD is a silicon-based semiconductor.
 Sensitivity is the ability of the CCD to detect

and respond to very low levels of visible light.

 This sensitivity is important for

photographing the heavens through a

telescope and for low patient radiation dose
in digital imaging.
 Dynamic range is the ability of the CCD to

respond to a wide range of light intensity,

from very dim to very bright.
Cont..
 Note that the CCD radiation response is linear, but
the screen-film image receptor has the characteristic
Hurter and Driffield (H & D) curve response.
 With the use of a CCD image contrast is unrelated to
image receptor x-ray exposure. Furthermore, each
of the 4 decades of radiation response—0 to 10,000
—can be visualized by image post processing.
 Also, it should be noted that at very low x-ray
exposure the response of a CCD system is greater
than that of screen film. This should result in lower
patient dose during DR.
Cont..
 A CCD is very small, making it highly
adaptable to DR in its various forms. The CCD
itself measures approximately 1 to 2 cm, but
the pixel size is an exceptional 100 × 100
μm!
CESIUM IODIDE/CHARGE-COUPLED
DEVICE;
 Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) can be tiled to receive
the light from an area x-ray beam as it interacts with a
scintillation phosphor such as cesium iodide (CsI).
 This use of tiled CCDs receiving light from a
scintillator allows the use of an area x-ray beam, so
that, in contrast to SPR, exposure time is short.
 The scintillation light from a CsI phosphor is
efficiently transmitted through fiberoptic bundles to
the CCD array.
 The result is high x-ray capture efficiency and good
spatial resolution—up to 5 lp/mm. it shows a versatile
imaging system that is based on CsI and CCD
technology.
Cont..
 CsI/CCD is an indirect DR process by which
x-rays are converted first to light and then to
electric signal.
CESIUM IODIDE/AMORPHOUS SILICON:
 An early application of DR involved the use of CsI
to capture the x-ray,as well as transmission of the
resulting scintillation light to a collection element.
 Cesium iodide has a high photoelectric capture
because the atomic number of cesium is 55 and
that of iodine is 53. Therefore, x-ray interaction
with CsI is high, resulting in low patient radiation
doses.
 CsI/a-Si is an indirect DR process by which x-rays
are converted first to light and then to electric
signal.
Cont..
 The DR image receptor is fabricated into individual
pixels. Each pixel has a light-sensitive face of a-Si
with a capacitor and a TFT embedded.
 The geometry of each individual pixel is very
important, Because a portion of the pixel face is
occupied by conductors, capacitors, and the TFT, it
is not totally sensitive to the incident image-
forming x-ray beam.
 The percentage of the pixel face that is sensitive to
x-rays is the fill factor. The fill factor is
approximately 80%; therefore, 20% of the x-ray
beam does not contribute to the image.
Cont..
 As pixel size is reduced, spatial resolution
improves but at the expense of the patient
radiation dose. With smaller pixels, the fill factor
is reduced, and x-ray intensity must be
increased to maintain adequate signal strength.
 Much physics and materials science research in
the nanometer range (nanotechnology) promises
increased fill factor and improved spatial
resolution at even lower patient radiation doses.
 Cesium iodide has been used for years as the
capture element of an image-intensifier tube.
AMORPHOUS SELENIUM
 The final DR modality is identified by some as
direct DR because no scintillation phosphor is
involved.
 The image-forming x-ray beam interacts

directly with amorphous selenium (a-Se),

producing a charged pair as shown in Figure
16-13. The a-Se is both the capture element
and the coupling element.
 a-Se is a direct DR process by which x-rays

are converted to electric signal.

cont..
 The a-Se is approximately 200 μm thick and is
sandwiched between charged electrodes. The
entire image receptor would appear for CsI/a-
Si and described as an active matrix array
(AMA) of TFTs.

 X-rays incident on the a-Se create electron hole

pairsthrough direct ionization of selenium. The
created charge is collected by a storage
capacitor and remains there until the signal is
read by the switching action of the TFT.