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US 12,742,894 B2Granted
Wavelength-shifting sheet-coupled scintillation detectors
AssigneeAmerican Science and Engineering, Inc.
InventorsAaron J. Couture, Jeffrey M. Denker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present specification describes an X-ray detector that includes at least one scintillator screen for absorbing incident X rays and emitting corresponding light rays, a wavelength shifting sheet (WSS) coupled with the at least one scintillator screen for shifting the emitted light rays, at least one wavelength shifting fiber (WSF) coupled with at least one edge of the WSS for collecting the shifted light rays, and a photodetector for detecting the collected light rays.
Claims20
A method of detecting X-rays comprising:
- generating primary scintillation light over a first emission spectrum from a scintillator in response to incident X-ray radiation;
- absorbing at least a portion of the primary scintillation light in a wavelength-shifting sheet (WSS) having a first wavelength-shifting material, wherein the WSS has a WSS absorption spectrum and wherein the first emission spectrum and the WSS absorption spectrum have a first spectral overlap;
- emitting, from the WSS, first wavelength-shifted light having a WSS emission spectrum spectrally shifted relative to the first emission spectrum;
- absorbing at least a portion of the first wavelength-shifted light in a wavelength-shifting fiber (WSF) having a second wavelength-shifting material, wherein the WSF has a WSF absorption spectrum, wherein the WSS emission spectrum and the WSF absorption spectrum have a second spectral overlap, and wherein the first spectral overlap and the second spectral overlap are spectrally separated such that WSS emissions resulting from absorption of the primary scintillation light within the first spectral overlap are wavelength-shifted substantially outside the first spectral overlap prior to interaction with the second spectral overlap;
- emitting, from the WSF, second wavelength-shifted light having WSF emission spectrum spectrally shifted relative to the WSS emission spectrum;
- and
- detecting the second wavelength-shifted light using a photodetector.
4 more elements
A method of detecting X-rays comprising:
- generating scintillation light over a first emission spectrum from a scintillator in response to incident X-ray radiation;
- absorbing at least a portion of the scintillation light in a wavelength-shifting sheet (WSS) having a first wavelength-shifting material, wherein the WSS has a WSS absorption spectrum, wherein the first emission spectrum and the WSS absorption spectrum have a first spectral overlap band, wherein the first spectral overlap band is narrower than the first emission spectrum, and wherein the first spectral overlap band partially overlaps, but does not fully encompass, the first emission spectrum;
- emitting, from the WSS, first wavelength-shifted light having a WSS emission spectrum spectrally shifted relative to the first emission spectrum;
- absorbing at least a portion of the first wavelength-shifted light in a wavelength-shifting fiber (WSF) having a second wavelength-shifting material, wherein the WSF has a WSF absorption spectrum, wherein the WSS emission spectrum and the WSF absorption spectrum have a second spectral overlap band, wherein the second spectral overlap band partially overlaps, but does not fully encompass, the WSS emission spectrum, and wherein the first spectral overlap band and the second spectral overlap band are spectrally separated such that emission resulting from absorption within the first spectral overlap band lies substantially outside the first spectral overlap band prior to interaction with the second spectral overlap band;
- emitting, from the WSF, second wavelength-shifted light having a WSF emission spectrum spectrally shifted relative to the WSS emission spectrum;
- and
- detecting the second wavelength-shifted light using a photodetector, wherein the WSF emission spectrum matches a peak sensitivity range of the photodetector.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.