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US 2019/0336091 A1Published application
Energy-discriminating photon-counting detector and the use thereof
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsYannan Jin, Peter Michael Edic, Xue Rui, Geng Fu
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Abstract
The present approaches relates to the use of silicon-based energy-discriminating, photon-counting detectors, such as for use in X-ray based imaging including computed tomography. The described approaches address the resolution and classification of X-ray photons affected by Compton scatter, which may be detected as having energy levels below their proper level due to collision or deflection events.
Claims20
An X-ray based imaging system, comprising:
- an X-ray source configured to emit X-rays at one or more energy spectra;
- an X-ray detector comprising a silicon-based direct-conversion material, wherein the X-ray detector is configured to generate signals in response to the transmitted X-rays during operation and wherein the signals correspond to photon counts observed at different energy levels for each exposure interval;
- and
- a processing component configured to receive the signals from the X-ray detector and to bin the photon count data for at least one respective energy spectrum based on observed energy levels into one of:
- a primary high-energy bin above a first threshold;
- a low-energy bin between a second threshold and the first threshold;
- and
- a secondary high-energy bin above a discard threshold and below the second threshold;
- wherein the processing component is further configured to generate one or more images using high-energy photon counts derived for the primary high-energy bin and secondary high-energy bin and using the low-energy photon counts in the low-energy bin.
6 more elements
A method for resolving X-ray photon count data, comprising:
- acquiring a measured transmitted spectrum for an object by measuring transmission of X-ray photons through the object;
- determining a high-energy photon count by considering photons above a low-energy/high-energy threshold, and those photons undergoing Compton scattering and resulting in a detected energy above the Compton edge of the low-energy/high-energy threshold and below the Compton edge of the highest energy photon in the X-ray beam;
- determining a low-energy photon count by considering photons above the Compton edge of the highest energy photon in the X-ray beam and below the low-energy/high-energy threshold;
- and
- performing material decomposition using the low-energy photon count and the high-energy photon count to generate a water area density estimate and an iodine area density estimate.
2 more elements
An X-ray based imaging system, comprising:
- an X-ray source configured to emit X-rays at one or more energy spectra;
- an X-ray detector comprising a silicon-based direct-conversion material, wherein the X-ray detector is configured to generate signals in response to the transmitted X-rays during operation and wherein the signals correspond to photon counts observed at different energy levels for each exposure interval;
- and
- a processing component configured to:
- receive the signals from the X-ray detector;
- determine a high-energy photon count by considering photons above a low-energy/high-energy threshold, and those photons undergoing Compton scattering and resulting in a detected energy above the Compton edge of the low-energy/high-energy threshold and below the Compton edge of the highest energy photon in the X-ray beam;
- determine a low-energy photon count by considering photons above the Compton edge of the highest energy photon in the X-ray beam and below the low-energy/high-energy threshold;
- and
- perform material decomposition using the low-energy photon count and the high-energy photon count to generate a water area density estimate and an iodine area density estimate.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.