Detective quantum efficiency model of single-X-ray-photon counting hybrid pixel detectors

Abstract

A Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE) model of single-X-ray-Photon Counting Hybrid Pixel Detectors (PC-HPDs) is presented. It applies to PC-HPDs based on semiconductor sensors such as silicon and CdTe pixel sensors. Charge-sharing effects are introduced in the expressions of imaging performance parameters such as large-area gain factor, presampling modulation transfer function and digital noise power spectrum, using the concept of threshold-dependent effective fill-factor. A simple X-ray induced charge distribution approximation is used to derive a practical formula for the threshold-dependent large-area gain factor, i.e. the integral X-ray spectrum which can be indirectly measured with a PC-HPD. This detector model was applied to standard synchrotron X-ray PC-HPDs: MEDIPIX3, PILATUS and XPAD detectors. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.