Feasibility of amorphous selenium based photon counting detectors for digital breast tomosynthesis

Amorphous selenium (a-Se) has been incorporated successfully in direct conversion flat panel x-ray detectors, and has demonstrated superior image quality in screening mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) under energy integration mode. The present work explores the potential of a-Se for photon counting detectors in DBT. We investigated major factors contributing to the variation in the charge collected by a pixel upon absorption of each x-ray photon. These factors included x-ray photon interaction, detector geometry, charge transport, and the pulse shaping and noise properties of the photon counting readout circuit. Experimental measurements were performed on a linear array test structure constructed by evaporating an a-Se layer onto an array of 100 μm pitch strip electrodes, which are connected to a 32 channel low noise photon counting integrated circuit. The measured pulse height spectrum (PHS) under polychromatic x-ray exposure was interpreted quantitatively using the factors identified. Based on the understanding of a-Se photon counting performance, design parameters were proposed for a 2D detector with high quantum efficiency and count rate that could meet the requirements of photon counting detector for DBT.