TY - GEN
T1 - Focal spot measurements using a digital flat panel detector
AU - Jain, Amit
AU - Panse, A.
AU - Bednarek, Daniel R.
AU - Rudin, Stephen
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Focal spot size is one of the crucial factors that affect the image quality of any x-ray imaging system. It is, therefore, important to measure the focal spot size accurately. In the past, pinhole and slit measurements of x-ray focal spots were obtained using direct exposure film. At present, digital detectors are replacing film in medical imaging so that, although focal spot measurements can be made quickly with such detectors, one must be careful to account for the generally poorer spatial resolution of the detector and the limited usable magnification. For this study, the focal spots of a diagnostic x-ray tube were measured with a 10-μm pinhole using a 194-μm pixel flat panel detector (FPD). The twodimensional MTF, measured with the Noise Response (NR) Method was used for the correction for the detector blurring. The resulting focal spot sizes based on the FWTM (Full Width at Tenth Maxima) were compared with those obtained with a very high resolution detector with 8-μm pixels. This study demonstrates the possible effect of detector blurring on the focal spot size measurements with digital detectors with poor resolution and the improvement obtained by deconvolution. Additionally, using the NR method for measuring the two-dimensional MTF, any non-isotropies in detector resolution can be accurately corrected for, enabling routine measurement of non-isotropic x-ray focal spots. This work presents a simple, accurate and quick quality assurance procedure for measurements of both digital detector properties and x-ray focal spot size and distribution in modern x-ray imaging systems.
AB - Focal spot size is one of the crucial factors that affect the image quality of any x-ray imaging system. It is, therefore, important to measure the focal spot size accurately. In the past, pinhole and slit measurements of x-ray focal spots were obtained using direct exposure film. At present, digital detectors are replacing film in medical imaging so that, although focal spot measurements can be made quickly with such detectors, one must be careful to account for the generally poorer spatial resolution of the detector and the limited usable magnification. For this study, the focal spots of a diagnostic x-ray tube were measured with a 10-μm pinhole using a 194-μm pixel flat panel detector (FPD). The twodimensional MTF, measured with the Noise Response (NR) Method was used for the correction for the detector blurring. The resulting focal spot sizes based on the FWTM (Full Width at Tenth Maxima) were compared with those obtained with a very high resolution detector with 8-μm pixels. This study demonstrates the possible effect of detector blurring on the focal spot size measurements with digital detectors with poor resolution and the improvement obtained by deconvolution. Additionally, using the NR method for measuring the two-dimensional MTF, any non-isotropies in detector resolution can be accurately corrected for, enabling routine measurement of non-isotropic x-ray focal spots. This work presents a simple, accurate and quick quality assurance procedure for measurements of both digital detector properties and x-ray focal spot size and distribution in modern x-ray imaging systems.
KW - Focal Spot
KW - Noise Response method
KW - flat panel detector
KW - focal spot measurement
KW - pinhole camera
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84901610053
U2 - 10.1117/12.2043057
DO - 10.1117/12.2043057
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9780819498267
T3 - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
BT - Medical Imaging 2014
PB - SPIE
T2 - Medical Imaging 2014: Physics of Medical Imaging
Y2 - 17 February 2014 through 20 February 2014
ER -