Performance quantification of a flat-panel imager in industrial mega-voltage X-ray imaging systems

Active matrix flat-panel detectors have gained popularity amongst X-ray imaging systems due to their speed, resolution and high dynamic range. With appropriate shielding modern flat-panel imagers can even be used in high energy Computed Tomography (CT) systems of energies up to several mega-electronvolt (MeV). However, the performance of a digital detector is not independent of the rest of the radiographic system but depends on all other components of the system. Signal and noise transfer properties highly depend on all parameters of an imaging chain. This work focuses on quantifying the resolution capabilities and the noise in the signals of a MeV X-ray imaging system. The performance quantification is done by computing the modulation transfer function (MTF) using the standard edge method as well as the noise power spectrum (NPS) of the imaging system. We performed Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in order to understand the influence of scattered radiation on the measurements. A comparison of the horizontal and vertical MTF showed that the imaging behaviour of the detector is isotropic. Moreover, an additional investigation of the noise performance of the system showed that there is no measurable noise correlation present in the system. It was shown that the thickness of the edge device does not have a significant influence on the resulting system MTF. A rapid drop in the visibility could be observed resulting in a value of 1.2 line pairs per mm at 50% MTF. The visibility limit of line pair patterns was found to be at 2.3 line pairs per mm given by the 10% MTF value.