Devices equipped with tribostimulable storage phosphors

A method to determine in a quantitative way amounts of pressure energy comprising:

• i) providing a device for measuring a pressure force or changes thereof applied by a pressure source differing from a direct air pressure source and for reading out said pressure force, wherein said device comprises a stimulable storage phosphor sheet or panel and means in order to apply the said pressure force onto the said stimulable storage phosphor sheet or panel and wherein said pressure source and said storage phosphor panel are positioned relative to each other so that pressure or variations thereof caused or generated by said pressure source reach said stimulable phosphor, called tribostimulable phosphor, thereby stimulating said phosphor by pressure in order to release tribostimulated light, said device further having capturing means to capture said tribostimulated light and detecting means to detect it;
• ii) irradiating said device by incident irradiation in such a way that the said tribostimulable storage panel is exposed with a calibrated amount of energy;
• iii) reading out said storage phosphor panel by provoking stimulation of said tribostimulable storage phosphors by a source of pressure force;
• iv) digitally detecting energy released from said tribostimulable storage phosphor panel by a detector;
• and
• v) erasing stored rest energy.

A method to absorb or capture energy and reproduce quantitatively said energy originating from a pressure source by a device for measuring a pressure force or changes thereof applied by a pressure source differing from a direct air pressure source and for reading out said pressure force, wherein said device comprises a stimulable storage phosphor sheet or panel and means in order to apply the said pressure force onto the said stimulable storage phosphor sheet or panel and wherein said pressure source and said storage phosphor panel are positioned relative to each other so that pressure or variations thereof caused or generated by said pressure source reach said stimulable phosphor, called tribostimulable phosphor, thereby stimulating said phosphor by pressure in order to release tribostimulated light, said device further having capturing means to capture said tribostimulated light and detecting means to detect it;

• said method comprising:
• i) exposing the tribostimulable storage phosphor to a calibrated amount of penetrating radiation having a wavelength of 350 nm or less,
• ii) storing the said calibrated amount of energy from said penetrating radiation in said storage phosphor,
• iii) releasing at least part of said stored energy as tribostimulated light by stimulating said phosphor with energy generated by a source of pressure force, and
• iv) reading said tribostimulated light, wherein said phosphor is stimulated by pressure emanating from a pixelwise driven piezeo-electrical device.

A method of measuring a pressure force generated comprising:

• i) absorbing and storing incident radiation energy originating from radiation having a wavelength of 350 nm or less, wherein a storage phosphor panel is covered with an optical filter absorbing radiation having a wavelength of 350 nm or more;
• ii) reading out said storage phosphor panel by adding stimulating energy to the said storage phosphor panel by means of pressure or energy convertable to pressure,
• iii) detecting energy released from said storage phosphor panel by a detector as digitally detected energy,
• iv) storing said digitally detected energy in an electronic memory,
• v) plotting said data as a function of time, and
• vi) erasing stored rest energy in the storage panel by means of energy from a light source, a heat source or a pressure source.

Method for monitoring a dose of penetrating radiation absorbed by an object, said method comprising the steps of

• (a) providing said object with a device for absorbing penetrating radiation, including a tribostimulable storage phosphor for storing energy from said penetrating radiation;
• (b) coupling said tribostimulable storage phosphor at predetermined intervals to a source of pressure, activating said source of pressure in such a way as to cause said tribostimulable storage phosphor to emit an amount of fluorescent light proportional with an amount of stored energy;
• (c) reading said amount of fluorescent light and converting it in an electric signal value or values;
• (d) storing electric signal value(s) obtained at said predetermined intervals and processing them in order to evaluate a total amount of radiation absorbed by said object;
• (e) comparing said total amount with a predefined threshold value in order to obtain a figure as a difference of values, and
• (f) displaying said figure on a display.