Feasibility study of a TIMEPIX detector for mammography applications.

We present a comparison study of two X-ray systems for mammography imaging. One is a SELENIA clinical system and the second is a TIMEPIX based system. The aim of the study is to determine the capability of a TIMEPIX detector for mammography applications. We first compare signal to noise ratio (SNR) of X-ray images of Al 2 O 3 spheres with diameters of 0.16mm, 0.24mm and 0.32mm, of a commercial mammography accreditation phantom CIRS015, obtained with each system. Then, we make a similar comparison for a second phantom built with Hydroxyapatite crystals with different morphology and sizes ranging between 0.15mm and 0.83mm, which are embedded within the same block of PMMA of the CIRS015 phantom. Our study allows us to determine the minimum size of Al 2 O 3 spheres on the order of 240μm, with 33% lower SNR for the TIMEPIX system as compared to the SELENIA system. When comparing the images of Hydroxyapatite crystals from both systems, the minimum size observed is about 300μm, with 23% lower SNR for TIMEPIX.