Reference Detector Arrangement For Computed Tomography Imaging System

An x-ray CT system, comprising:

• a gantry with a rotor arranged for rotation about an axis;
• an x-ray source supported on the rotor and configured to generate x-rays;
• an x-ray detector supported on the rotor;
• a reference detector assembly operatively attached to the x-ray source for measuring flux of photons generated by the x-ray source, the reference detector assembly including:
• a tungsten shield defining an aperture,
• an x-ray sensitive element supported adjacent to the aperture of the tungsten shield and configured to generate a reference output in response to x-rays generated by the x-ray source passing through the aperture,
• a photodiode supported adjacent to the x-ray sensitive element and configured to receive the reference output from the x-ray sensitive element, and
• a reference detector controller in communication with the photodiode and configured to generate a reference signal based on the reference output from the x-ray sensitive element;
• and
• a controller including a memory and a processor coupled to the memory and configured with processor-executable instructions to perform tomographic reconstruction of image data received from the x-ray detector and normalized based on the reference signal from the reference detector controller.