Apodized-Aperture Pixel Design X-Ray Detector for Improvement of Detective Quantum Efficiency at High Spatial Frequencies

The detective quantum efficiency (DQE) is a characteristic of x-ray imaging systems describing how well a system can produce high signal-to-noise ratio images compared to an ideal detector. In medical radiography, increases in DQE result directly in increases in image SNR for a given x-ray exposure, and improved SNR has been shown to improve breast cancer detection rates in screening programs. Typically, modern x-ray detectors have DQE values about 0.6 to 0.7 at low spatial frequencies and 0.2 to 0.3 or less at high spatial frequencies. We describe a method to improve the high frequency DQE by developing a novel apodized-aperture pixel (AAP) design that can be implemented with detectors having very small elements. We show theoretically that the high-frequency DQE can be doubled using this approach. Experimental validation shows an increase from 0.2 to 0.4 at the sampling cut-off frequency (2.5 cycles/mm) for a laboratory CMOS/CsI detector. It is predicted the high-frequency DQE of a Se-based detector for mammography could be increased from 0.35 to 0.7. Such increases would improve visualization of small objects and fine detail in x-ray imaging by a factor of two