A 2048 X 2048 PIXEL CCD X-RAY IMAGE SENSOR SYSTEM

THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP AND EVALUATE AN X-RAY DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SYSTEM BASED ON A CCD-TYPE, SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSORHAVING 2048 X 2048 PIXELS IN A 55 X 55 MM FORMAT. THE PROPOSED TEST AND EVALUATION PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE THE SUPERIOR X-RAY IMAGING PERFORMANCE OF THIS LENS-COUPLED CCD IMAGE-SENSOR SYSTEM, AS COMPARED TO X-RAY IMAGE INTENSIFIED/TELEVISION CAMERA SYSTEMS. WHILE THE SUPERIOR IMAGE QUALITY OF A LENS-COUPLED SYSTEM HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED FOR SOME TIME, THESE SYSTEMS HAVE NOT BEEN SENSITIVE ENOUGH. THIS PROPOSAL USES THE LARGE-FORMAT CCD TELEVISION CAMERA, WHICH ALLOWS FOR MODERATE DEMAGNIFICATIONIN THE OPTICS AND HAS A QUANTUM EFFICIENCY EXCEEDING 50% COMBINED WITH READOUT NOISE EQUIVALENT TO ONLY A FEW X-RAYS PER PICTURE ELEMENT. THE CCD DYNAMIC RANGE EXCEEDS 10 4 ANDTHE SPATIAL FREQUENCY RESPONSE AT THE 2048 PIXEL PITCH (18.4LINE PAIRS PER MM) IS APPROXIMATELY 50%. THE PROPOSED CCD- BASED X-RAY IMAGING SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO AFFORD SUBSTAN- TIALLY HIGHER CONTRAST AND OTHER PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS ASWELL AS POTENTIALLY LOWER OVERALL SYSTEMS COSTS COMPARED TO STATE-OF-THE-ART IMAGE TUBE-BASED SYSTEMS. PRINCETON SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS WILL ASSEMBLE THE PROPOSED CCD-BASED X-RAY IMAGING SYSTEM TO OPTIMIZE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND ANALYZE THE TEST RESULTS.