Experimental evaluation of the pile-up trigger method in a revised quantum-counting CT detector

E. Kraft; F. Glasser; S. Kappler; D. Niederloehner; P. Villard

doi:10.1117/12.911231

23 February 2012 Experimental evaluation of the pile-up trigger method in a revised quantum-counting CT detector

E. Kraft, F. Glasser, S. Kappler, D. Niederloehner, P. Villard

Proceedings Volume 8313, Medical Imaging 2012: Physics of Medical Imaging; 83134A (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911231
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The application of quantum-counting detectors in clinical Computed Tomography (CT) is challenged by very large Xray photon fluxes present in modern systems. Situations with sub-optimal patient positioning or scanning of small objects can cause unattenuated exposure of parts of the detector. The typical pulse durations in CdTe/CdZnTe sensor range in the order of several nanoseconds, even if the detector design is optimized for high-rate applications by using high sensor depletion voltages and small pixel sizes. This can lead to severe pile-up of the pulses, resulting in count efficiency degradation or even ambiguous detector signals. The recently introduced pile-up trigger method solves this problem by combining the signal of a photon counting channel with a signal indicative of the level of pile-up. Latter is obtained with a photon-counting channel operated at threshold energies beyond the maximum energy of the incident photon spectrum so that its signal arises purely from pulse pile-up. We present an experimental evaluation of the pile-up trigger method in a revised quantum-counting CT detector and compare our results to simulations of the method with idealized detector properties.

Citation Download Citation

E. Kraft, F. Glasser, S. Kappler, D. Niederloehner, and P. Villard "Experimental evaluation of the pile-up trigger method in a revised quantum-counting CT detector", Proc. SPIE 8313, Medical Imaging 2012: Physics of Medical Imaging, 83134A (23 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911231

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