Lindsey Shriner

Notebook 5
DR
Direct digital systems have eliminated cassettes and have even reduced the number of steps
required to perform exams. DR systems use direct or indirect detectors. Direct detectors use
a photoconductor and indirect detectors use a scintillator.
Direct detectors- direct conversion systems directly convert incoming x-ray photons to an
electronic digital signal.
This system uses amorphous selenium (a-Se) and a thin film transistor (TFT) and are also
referred to as direct DR systems. Amorphous selenium is the active layer in the imaging
plate and it is also a semiconductor with excellent x-ray photon detection ability.
Ionization from applying a high-voltage charge to the top surface of the selenium caused by
the x-ray photons results in the selenium atoms freeing electrons for collection by the
electrodes at the bottom of the selenium layer.
These charges are collected at a TFT and then read out line by line to the computer for
processing.
Indirect detectors- there are two types; one uses a flat panel TFT detector and the other uses
a charged coupled device (CCD).
A scintillator is needed for both systems to change the x-ray photons to light; the main
difference is the way that the light is converted to an electrical signal.
Amorphous silicon cannot directly convert x-rays into an electric charge but it works as a
light detector or photodiode to capture fluorescent light.
A thick silicon layer is required to provide adequate sensitivity to the incoming x-ray
photons because of its low atomic number.
Amorphous silicon requires a scintillator like cesium iodide (CsI) or a rare-earth intensifying
screen composed of gadolinium oxysulfide (Gd2O2S).
CsI detectors- is the most used type of amorphous silicon detector, very thin needles
that are perpendicular to the detector surface work as light-directing tubes. This allows
greater direction of x-rays and since there is almost no light spread the spatial resolution
will be higher.
Gd2O2S detectors- made from small crystals bound together in an unstructured or turbid
layer along with a polyurethane material. The crystalline layer has air pockets in it which
allow light that was generated in the phosphor to escape. This lowers spatial resolution.
 Lindsey Shriner

Scintillators emit light isotropically, which can reduce spatial resolution. So in order to
minimize light spread, CsI is manufactured as a structured crystals in the form of needles
or columns 10 to 20 micrometers in diameter. The Gd2O2S is a turbid phosphor where the
crystals are deposited as fine powdered particles.
When the light reaches the amorphous silicon, it is converted into electrical charges that
are then deposited on a TFT.
Flat panel thin film transistors (TFTs)- the amorphous silicon and amorphous selenium flat
plate detectors use thin film transistors for electronic readout. The TFT collects the electric
charges produced by either the selenium or silicon as an array or matrix of pixel-size detector
elements (DEL).
Charged-coupled devices- photosensitive receptor and electronics embedded into a substrate
material in a silicon chip, think of it like a camera.
In a CCD system, x-ray photons interact with a scintillation material and the signal is
transmitted by lenses or fiber optics to the CCD. The lenses reduce the size of the
projected visible light image and transfer the image to one or more small capacitors that
convert the light into an electrical charge. The change is then stored in a sequential pattern
and released line by line and sent to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)- special type of memory chip that uses a
small rechargeable or lithium battery to retain information about the personal computers
hardware while the computer is turned off.
It uses a scintillator that, when struck with x-ray photons, converts the x-rays into light
photons and stores them in capacitors. Each pixel or detector element has its own
amplifier, which is switched on and off by circuitry within the pixel, converting the light
photons into electrical signals.
Voltage from the amplifier is converted by an ADC. It is highly efficient and takes up less
space than CCDs.
Pixels or detector element (del)- they contain three electrodes that hold the electrons in an
electrical potential well.
Pixels are made of bits
Bit- single unit of data
Byte- made of 8 bits and is the amount of memory needed to store one alphanumeric
character.
Bit depth- number of bits stored per pixel, defines the shades of gray for each pixel.
 Lindsey Shriner

Matrix- rectangular or square table of numbers that represent the pixel intensity to be
displayed on the monitor.
Dels are formed by voltage gates that are opened and closed like gates to allow the flow of
electrons at the time of readout.
In order to collect the charge on the silicon chips, the voltage sign is changed on the
electrodes within each del, moving the electrons by rows down and the columns until the
readout row is reached.
This is generally know as the bucket brigade scheme. When the readout scheme is
reached the data is sent sequentially to the sense amplifier and it is then digitized.
A blooming effect can occur when the dels are overfilled and the excess electrons spill
out of the del into an adjacent del.
Dynamic range- the ability of an imaging system to respond to varying levels of exposure.
Exposure latitude- range of over or under exposures that will still result in a readable image.
Lindsey Shriner