Active matrix detector for X-ray imaging
AssigneeEdge Medical Devices Ltd.
InventorAlbert Zur
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention discloses a radiation imager including a plurality of radiation sensing elements operative to provide real-time radiation data and integrated radiation data, and circuitry coupled to the plurality of radiation sensing elements and providing readout of the real time radiation data and readout of the integrated radiation data and being operative to employ the integrated radiation data to provide a radiation image. A method of radiation imaging including the steps of providing a radiation detection module underlying an object to be imaged, exposing the object to be imaged to radiation, and employing the radiation detection module to provide exposure data corresponding to the object at at least two different spatial resolutions is also disclosed.
Claims43
A radiation imager comprising:
- a plurality of radiation sensing elements operative to provide real-time radiation data and integrated radiation data;
- and
- circuitry coupled to said plurality of radiation sensing elements and providing readout of said real time radiation data and readout of said integrated radiation data and being operative to employ said integrated radiation data to provide a radiation image.
A radiation sensing device having a plurality of cells, each of said cells including:
- a radiation sensor;
- a first output terminal, connected to the radiation sensor, which outputs real-time radiation data sensed by said radiation sensor;
- an input terminal, connected to said radiation sensor, which is employed to address said radiation sensor;
- and
- a second output terminal, connected to said radiation sensor, which outputs integrated radiation data sensed by said radiation sensor when addressed.
A solid state radiation imager comprising:
- a plate electrode;
- a photoelectric conversion layer underlying said electrode and being operative to convert radiation passing through said plate electrode and impinging on said layer to charge carriers;
- a solid state active matrix array underlying said photoelectric conversion layer and including a plurality of pixel capacitors which are operative to accumulate said charge carriers, each pixel capacitor including:
- an addressable microplate;
- and
- a segmented opposing electrode;
- control circuitry for selective addressing of said addressable microplates;
- and
- readout circuitry for sensing charge flowing to at least one segment of said opposing electrodes, thereby providing real-time exposure information, and sensing accumulated charge from addressed ones of said addressable microplates, thereby providing integrated radiation information associated with said radiation.
A method for automatic exposure control in an X-ray system and comprising the steps of:
- providing a radiation detector including an array of image pixels underlying an object to be imaged;
- irradiating the object to be imaged;
- detecting at the radiation detector in real-time an irradiated field spanning at least some of the image pixels;
- employing the detected irradiated field to determine at least one local region;
- generating a regional pixel map for each of said at least one local region, wherein each regional pixel map comprises exposure values of image pixels contained within the corresponding local region;
- and
- repeatedly analyzing the regional pixel maps using associated analysis criteria to determine timing for exposure termination;
- and
- providing an exposure termination signal.
A method for imagewise radiation detection comprising the steps of:
- providing a controllable ionizing radiation source;
- providing an image detection module having a plurality of sensing elements;
- positioning an object to be imaged between said controllable ionizing radiation source and said image detection module;
- exposing said object to be imaged to radiation emitted by said controllable ionizing radiation source;
- generally continuously providing real-time data from said plurality of sensing elements corresponding to radiation impinging on said image detection module during exposure;
- integrating data at said plurality of sensing elements to provide integrated data corresponding to an integrated level of radiation impinging on said image detection module;
- real-time processing of said real-time data to provide feedback to said image detection module;
- and
- processing said integrated data to provide a digital image representation corresponding to said object to be imaged.
A method for enhanced detection of radiation images comprising the steps of:
- providing a radiation image detector including an array of image pixels underlying an object to be imaged;
- irradiating the object to be imaged;
- detecting at said image detector in real-time an irradiated field spanning at least some of the image pixels;
- employing the detected irradiated field to determine a global pixel map comprising exposure values of image pixels contained within the irradiated field;
- repeatedly analyzing the global pixel map using associated analysis criteria to provide feedback to the radiation image detector;
- and
- employing the feedback for enhanced detection of radiation images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.