Quantum noise in digital X-ray image detectors with optically coupled scintillators

Digital X-ray imaging detectors designed for soft X-rays (1 to 50 keV) are significant for medical mammography, dental radiography, microradiography, and microtomography. Detector designs involve either direct absorption of X-rays in solid state devices or thin scintillator screens optically coupled to solid state sensors. Well designed scintillator systems produce 10 or more electrons per detected X-ray and, used with charge coupled devices (CCD), detect 100,000 X-rays per pixel before saturation. However, if the scintillator is directly coupled to the detector, radiation can penetrate to the semiconductor detector with a small number of events producing large charge and noise. The authors have investigated the degradation of image noise by these direct absorption events using numerical models for a laboratory detector system consisting of a 60 /spl mu/m CsI scintillator optically coupled to a scientific CCD. Monte Carlo methods were used to estimate the charge deposition signal and noise for both the CsI and the semiconductor. Without a fiber optic coupler, direct absorptions dominate the signal and increase the signal variance by a factor of about 30 at energies above 10 keV. With a 3 mm fiber optic coupler, no significant degradation is observed for input energies below 45 keV.