General Electric Company

Morpho Detection, Inc.

Yanfeng Du

John Eric Tkaczyk

Wen Li

Naresh Kesavan Rao

James Walter LeBlanc

David Michael Hoffman

Deborah Joy Walter

Xiaoye Wu

Brian David Yanoff

Robert F Senzig

Jianjun Guo

Forrest Frank Hopkins

J Eric Tkaczyk

Jonathan David Short

Samit Kumar Basu

James Wilson Rose

Walter Vincent Dixon, Iii

Lev Greenberg

David Ruimi

Jerome Stephen Arenson

Floribertus Heukensfeldt Jansen

Charles Gerard Woychik

Yaron Hefetz

Joseph Bendahan

Ravindra Mohan Manjeshwar

Francis Howard Little

Clifford Bueno

Sergei Ivanovich Dolinsky

Ira Micah Blevis

Naveen Stephan Chandra

Zhye Yin

Gideon Berlad

Brian Christopher Bales

Gregory Alan Mohr

Thomas William Birdwell

Evren Asma

Zhaoping Wu

Oded Meirav

Evgeny Drapkin

Oliver Richard Astley

Kelly Lynn Piacsek

Paul Francis Fitzgerald

Jong Chul Ye

Kristen Ann Wangerin

Girish Bal

James Leblanc

Minglong Zhang

Osnat Zak

Qian Hua

Michael Chunhe Gong

James W Leblanc

Systems and methods for generating control signal in radiation detector systems are provided. One system includes a scheduling architecture having at least one anode channel connected to a detector of the radiation detector system. The anode channel includes a charge sensitive amplifier and a signal shaper, wherein the anode channel is configured to generate at least one control signal to control data acquisition by the detector. The scheduling architecture also includes at least one shaper timer configured having a time constant to define timing for the generation of the control signal without using a clock.

Systems and methods for generating control signals in radiation detector systems

The present disclosure relates to the correction of charge loss in a radiation detector. In one embodiment, correction factors for charge loss may be determined based on depth of interaction and lateral position within a radiation detector of a charge creating event. The correction factors may be applied to subsequently measured signals to correct for the occurrence of charge loss in the measured signals.

Charge loss correction

A data acquisition system includes a charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) configured to receive a charge from an x-ray detector, the CSA includes a high-gain electronic voltage amplifier, an electrical energy storage device coupled with the amplifier, and an electrical resistor coupled with the amplifier. The data acquisition system includes a baseline sampling circuit configured to receive an output from the CSA and to sample a baseline signal from the CSA, at least one discriminator coupled to an output of the CSA and to an output of the baseline sampling circuit, the at least one discriminator configured to output a voltage if the output of the CSA exceeds a threshold, and a counter coupled to an output of the discriminator and configured to output a digital signal indicative of a photon count received at the x-ray detector and based on the output from the CSA and on the signal from the CSA.

Readout electronics for photon counting and energy discriminating detectors

A radiation detector includes a semiconductor crystal having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, a first electrode electrically coupled with the first surface of the semiconductor crystal to allow current to flow between the first electrode and the crystal, and an insulating layer on the first surface and between the semiconductor crystal and the first electrode so as to create a partially transmissive electrical barrier between the first electrode and the crystal. The insulating layer has a thickness ranging from about 50 nanometers to about 500 nanometers.

Semiconductor crystal based radiation detector and method of producing the same

An apparatus and methods for evaluating the operation of pixelated detectors are provided. The method includes obtaining data values for each of a plurality of pixels of a pixelated detector and determining a data consistency metric for each of the plurality of detector pixels. The method further includes identifying, using the determined data consistency metric, any detector pixels that exceed an acceptance criterion as noisy pixels.

Apparatus and methods for evaluating operation of pixelated detectors

An event time stamping system comprising a current source, an integrator comprising an input and an output, and configured to output a voltage proportional to the length of time the current source is coupled to the input, and one or more switches configured to couple the current source to the input of the integrator upon receipt of an event signal and configured to de-couple the current source from the input of the integrator upon receipt of a control trigger. The system further comprises a lock-out signal generator configured to generate a lock-out signal, and a controller coupled to the one or more switches, wherein the controller is configured to generate the control trigger based on the lock-out signal to ensure a minimum integration time.

System and method for time-to-voltage conversion with lock-out logic

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) comprising a plurality of channels, each channel having circuitry for time and energy discrimination, a plurality of programmable registers, each programmable register configured to output at least one configuration parameter for the circuitry, and a channel-select register configured to identify a channel of the plurality of channels to be configured. The ASIC further includes a configuration-select register configured to identify the programmable register to be used for channel configuration, and a communications interface configured to transmit instructions received from a controller to one of the channel-select register, the configuration-select register, and the plurality of programmable registers.

Apparatus and method for channel-specific configuration in a readout ASIC

An embodiment of the invention includes a radiation detecting pixel array. The radiation detecting pixel array includes a substrate, a plurality of radiation detecting pixels arranged in a grid pattern on the substrate, a signal routing array embedded within the substrate in operative communication with the plurality of radiation detecting pixels, and at least two symmetrical communication channels arranged on each of two sides of the grid pattern. The signal routing array is formed of communication channels configured to provide operative communication between any of the plurality of radiation detecting pixels and each of the at least two symmetrical communication channels.

Radiation detecting pixel array signal routing

A CT detector includes a direct conversion material configured to generate electrical charge upon reception of x-rays, a plurality of metallized anodes configured to collect electrical charges generated in the direct conversion material, at least one readout device, and a redistribution layer having a plurality of electrical pathways configured to route the electrical charges from the plurality of metallized anodes to the at least one readout device. A plurality of switches is coupled to the plurality of electrical pathways between the plurality of metallized anodes and the at least one readout device, wherein each of the plurality of switches includes an input line electrically coupled to one of the plurality of metallized anodes, a first output node electrically coupled to the at least one readout device, and a second output node electrically coupled to at least one other switch of the plurality of switches.

Method and apparatus for flexibly binning energy discriminating data

Disclosed herein is a method for detecting high atomic number elements in an article by using radiation having two different energies. The detecting of high atomic number elements can be accomplished by using an algorithm, curve fitting or using a data table. Disclosed herein too is a radiation system that uses the aforementioned method for detecting high atomic number elements.

Method for detecting the presence of high atomic number elements

A data acquisition system including a readout Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) having a plurality of channels, each channel having a time discriminating circuit and an energy discriminating circuit, wherein the ASIC is configured to receive a plurality of signals from a semiconductor radiation detector. The data acquisition system also includes a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) electrically coupled to the ASIC and configured to provide a reference signal to the ASIC used in the generation of digital outputs from the ASIC, and a controller electrically coupled to the ASIC and to the DAC, the controller configured to instruct the DAC to provide the reference signal to the ASIC.

Data acquisition system for photon counting and energy discriminating detectors

A radiation detector includes at least one multiple channel pixelated detector driven via a plurality of pixelated anode electrodes and at least one planar cathode electrode. Each detector is configured to reduce the number of active pixelated anode electrodes until a rate of events detected via at least one corresponding planar cathode electrode exceeds a preset threshold above a background count rate within a predetermined time period.

Radiation detector power management for portable/handheld applications

A diagnostic imaging system in an example includes a high frequency electromagnetic energy source, a detector, a data acquisition system (DAS), and a computer. The high frequency electromagnetic energy source emits a beam of high frequency electromagnetic energy toward an object to be imaged. The detector receives high frequency electromagnetic energy emitted by the high frequency electromagnetic energy source. The DAS is operably connected to the detector and programmed to employ a threshold to trigger a filter operation on a pixel, in a basis material decomposition (BMD) image of a plurality of BMD images, through comparison of an actual noise ratio between a pair of BMD images, of the plurality of BMD images, to a theoretical BMD noise ratio value. The computer is programmed to employ a correlation in noise distribution of the plurality of BMD images to reduce image noise in the plurality of BMD images.

Material decomposition image noise reduction

A CT detector capable of energy discrimination and direct conversion is disclosed. The detector includes multiple layers of semiconductor material with the layers having varying thicknesses. The detector is constructed to be segmented in the x-ray penetration direction so as to optimize count rate performance as well as avoid saturation. The detector also includes variable pixel pitch and a flexible binning of pixels to further enhance count rate performance.

Direct conversion energy discriminating CT detector with over-ranging correction

A photon-counting detector includes a direct conversion material and a data acquisition system with a first comparator having a first signal level threshold indicative of a noise level of a spectrum of photons, the first comparator configured to output a count when the electrical signal level exceeds the first signal level threshold, and a second comparator having a second signal level threshold indicative of the maximum energy of the spectrum of photons, the second comparator configured to output a count when the electrical signal exceeds the second signal level threshold where a photon count is determined based on the counts from the first and second comparators.

High DQE photon counting detector using statistical recovery of pile-up events

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Rexford, NY, United States of America

Yanfeng Du