Photoconductors for x-ray image detectors

Abstract

Modern flat-panel x-ray imaging detectors have played an important role in the transition from analog to digital x-ray imaging. They capture an x-ray image electronically and hence enable a clinical transition to digital radiography. This chapter critically discusses the material, transport and imaging detector properties (e. g., dark current) of several potential x-ray photoconductors and compares them with an ideal photoconductor for use in direct-conversion imaging detectors. The present chapter also considers various metrics of detector performances including sensitivity, detective quantum efficiency, resolution in terms of the modulation transfer function, image lag and ghosting; and examines how these metrics depend on the photoconductor material, and detector structure and design.