Method and system of energy integrating and photon counting using layered photon counting detector

A method of diagnostic imaging comprising:

• projecting a beam of x-ray energy toward an object to be imaged;
• positioning a first layer of an energy discriminating (ED) detector comprising a semiconductor configurable to operate in at least an integrating mode, to receive x-rays that pass through the object;
• acquiring x-ray data in the first layer from the x-rays passing through the object;
• positioning a second layer of the ED detector having a thickness greater than the first layer, to receive x-rays that pass through the first layer, further wherein a material of the second layer is different than a material of the first layer;
• directly converting incident photons to electrical charge within the second layer;
• identifying saturated data within the second layer;
• and
• replacing the saturated data with non-saturated data acquired in the first layer.

A diagnostic imaging detector comprising:

• a stacked arrangement of a direct conversion sensor and a sensor configurable to operate in at least an integrating mode, wherein the configurable sensor is positioned between an x-ray source and the direct conversion sensor, and wherein the direct conversion sensor has a thickness greater than a thickness of the configurable sensor, wherein a material of the configurable sensor has an atomic number lower than an atomic number of a material of the direct conversion sensor;
• wherein the direct conversion sensor has a saturation threshold in an electromagnetic range of the x-ray source;
• wherein the configurable sensor has a saturation threshold greater than the saturation threshold of the direct conversion sensor and outputs unsaturated imaging data acquired in an x-ray energy range above the saturation threshold of the direct conversion sensor;
• and
• wherein saturated data in the direct conversion layer is substituted with non-saturated data from a corresponding pixel in the configurable sensor.