Service Manual – Philips MicroDose L30, Software 8.

11. Service Tool

11.1 General
11.1.1 Password
The password for starting the Service Tool is “Mamea”.

11.1.2 Main window

In the left column in Figure 58 there is a status field. It may state that “All calibrations are up to
date”, or “These calibrations are not valid”, in which case a list is shown of calibrations that need
to be performed.

Figure 58 Service Tool main window with Normal tab selected.

Figure 59 Service Tool main window with Service tab selected.

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11.2 Normal Calibrations

The calibrations described in this section are performed during ordinary use and can all be
selected from the Normal tab in the Service Tool main window.
Full calibration, Quick calibration and Tube warmup can be started directly from the AWS menu
without requiring a password.

11.2.1 Full calibration

Why?
A Full calibration measures the X-ray response of all detector channels using a step-wedge
phantom and calculates correction factors to make the response equal and disables detector
channels that do not have sufficient performance. This ensures pixel homogeneity in the slit
direction. The X-ray response depends on many parameters besides the detector such as the X-ray
tube output and heel-effect, the collimator, compression paddle and patient support.

When?
Once a week, or if Quick calibration fails.

11.2.2 Quick calibration

Why?
Quick calibration uses the step-wedge phantom to locate and disable deviating channels in the
detector. This calibration includes a history function which is used to detect unstable channels in a
robust fashion. If a problem is remedied, the Quick calibration may need to be performed
repeatedly before the effects are apparent in the channel mask.

When?
A Quick calibration should be performed when a line artefact occurs. See example in section
18.2.1.

11.2.3 Tube warmup

Why?
To minimize the risk for arcing in the X-ray tube, a controlled exposure sequence should be
performed to warm up the X-ray tube before starting examinations.

When?
When four hours have passed since the last exposure was performed, the AWS will recommend
warming up the X-ray tube using this procedure.

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11.2.4 Clear history

Why?
This calibration removes history data used by the Full and Quick calibrations. The history data can
be recovered by performing repeated Quick calibrations.

When?
If Full calibration or Quick calibration fails because of previous problems which have now been
resolved, this step may be required. The channels which are masked because of the history
function are shown in the Channel mask viewer as Check history, see section 11.8.

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11.3 Service calibrations

Notice Calibrations must only be performed by personnel certified by Philips.

11.3.1 Asic calibration

This calibration is usually needed only once / during production.
Notice
Only perform this calibration when requested by product support.

Asic calibration trims the amplifier settings for the ASICs in the detector. The calibration is
performed without X-ray exposure.

Procedure – Perform calibration

1. Click on Asic in the Service Tool, under the Service tab.
2. A progress bar is shown and the current step is indicated, for example Calibrating Vrst.

Figure 60 Progress bar for Calibrating Vrst.

3. The user is informed whether the calibration was successful or not.

4. The status field is updated.
5. It is advisable to check the channel mask after this calibration, especially if the calibration
was unsuccessful.

Procedure – Calibrations and outgoing controls

1. Perform a Full calibration according to Quality Control Procedures [1].
2. According to Quality Control Procedures [1], perform the following controls:
a. Daily quality control
b. X-ray tube output (Air kerma)
c. Contrast-to-noise ratio
d. AEC system: Breast thickness and exposure
3. It is also recommended to perform.the test Contrast detail resolution according to Quality
Control Procedures [1],

Handling irregularities
See section 20.3 for information regarding handling failed calibrations.

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11.3.2 Automatic collimator alignment

Automatic collimator alignment (ACA) is the tool that is used to align the pre-collimator with the
detector. (A Geometry calibration must be performed after a Collimator alignment.)

Procedure
1. Press Emergency stop and
lower the collimator by hand.
2. Mount the lower part of the
ACA mechanics, see Figure
61. The lower part is attached
to the pre collimator assembly
by two Allen screws.
3. Loosen (do not remove) the
three screws holding the
collimator to its base, see
Figure 62. In what follows,
we refer to these as the Figure 61 The upper ACA mechanics is mounted on the so
alignment screws. You should called interface position. The lower ACA
now be able to move the mechanics is attached to the pre collimator
collimator in all directions. assembly. (The X-ray prevent cover is not
4. Tighten the alignment screws visible in this illustration.)
to 1.2 Nm or by hand until
there is no vertical play
when you pull the
collimator front up and
down. The collimator
should however still be
possible to move by
hand from left to right.
5. Mount the upper part(s)
of the ACA mechanics.
You may need to move
the collimator left/right
in order for the parts to
fit in each other. Apply
the springs (see “A” in
Figure 61) and check
that the collimator
position can be adjusted Figure 62 The three alignment screws of the collimator.
by turning the knobs.
6. Adjust both screw micrometers to the starting position:
10 mm for blue ACA (revision C or later).
13 mm for silver ACA (revision B or earlier).
7. Connect the power cable and the computer cable.

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8. Release the emergency stop and perform a reset. If the X-ray prevent cover is mounted,
make sure that it is attached to the collimator interface during the reset.

Make sure that no part of the ACA mechanics collide with anything during
Notice the Reset. Otherwise the homing of the collimator movement will be
incorrect and the alignment useless.

9. Click on System Configuration (see Figure 59) in the Service Tool, under the tab Service.
Check that the Detector S/N is correct. If it is not correct, enter the correct one and click
OK.
10. Click Collimator Alignment (see Figure 59) in the Service Tool, under the tab Service to
start ACA.
11. Click OK. The ACA motor starts the homing procedure, and the collimator can be seen to
move slowly in the left/right direction.

Figure 63 Detector analyzer display, after Exposure has been pressed.

12. Click Exposure. See Figure 63. Wait for

the motor to find its start position, press
Compression Done and expose.
13. Follow the instructions on screen.
14. When instructed to tighten the alignment
screws, tighten them to 5,7 Nm.
Figure 64 Confirm that the screws are
15. When instructed to loosen the alignment loosened before moving the
screws, loosen them as in step 4. Then motor.
adjust the knobs. Finally check Screws are
made loose and click Move motor. See Figure 64.

As the screws are tightened, you must not move the motor! Therefore, at
Notice
this stage, be sure not to check Screws are made loose.

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16. If the tube has two filaments and it is desired to align the pre-collimator with respect to
both filaments (optional), perform the instruction in section 11.3.3. Otherwise, continue
with step 17.
17. When the alignment is good enough (all indicators are green), click Done.
18. Disconnect and remove the ACA mechanics.
19. Perform a Geometry calibration. See section 11.3.5.

It is important that a Geometry calibration is performed after Collimator

Notice
alignment.

Handling irregularities
See section 20.3.1 for an alignment trouble shooting guide.

11.3.3 Alignment for two filaments (optional)

To align the pre-collimator with respect to two filaments, perform steps 1-15 in section 11.3.2
with filament 0 selected (see section 13.5), continue with the steps below and end with steps 17-19
in section 11.3.2.
1. When all indicators are green, change filament to 1 (see section 13.5, steps 1-3) and
restart the CCS.
2. Go to the Advanced tab and select Expose Still. Click Retry if a fail dialog appears.
3. In the Sequence drop list, change to Final still. In the View type drop list, select Overlay
view.
4. Go to the Alignment tab. If all indicators are green, go to step 5. If the alignment needs
improvement, make adjustments according to the proposal divided by two. That is, turn
the knobs with half of the indicated values and enter a value for the motor position that is
the mean of the proposed position and the previous position. The previous position can be
seen in the file name (screen dump). Proceed until the alignment is good enough, i.e. the
result indicator is green.
5. Change filament to 0 (see section 13.5, steps 1-3) and restart the CCS.
6. Go to the Advanced tab and select Expose Still. Click Retry if a fail dialog appears.
7. In the Sequence drop list, change to Final Still. In the View type drop list, select Overlay
view.
8. If all indicators are green, click Done – the collimator is aligned for both filaments. If the
alignment is not good enough, adjust the alignment according to the on-screen instructions
– the collimator could not be aligned for both filaments.

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11.3.4 Verify alignment

The alignment of the collimator can be verified without using the ACA mechanics. The procedure
differs if full collimator alignment was performed with L30 SW 8.1 or earlier, in which case the
Verify Alignment dialog in Figure 66 will appear.

Procedure – collimator alignment performed with 8.2 or later:

1. Click Verify Alignment (see Figure 59) in the Service Tool, under the tab Service.
2. Click on Exposure and expose. This is a reference exposure for the calculation. The X-ray
response should be uniform. If clipping is observed, check that the X-ray prevent cover is
correctly mounted.
3. Click on Exposure again and expose. The current margins are displayed and the alignment
is judged. If the indicator for left/right margin is red, a full collimator alignment has to be
performed. However, at ±90 degrees red indicators are ok as long as the current left/right
margin is above 10 µm.

Figure 65 Verify alignment. If the indicators are green, the alignment is good.

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Procedure – collimator alignment performed with 8.1 or earlier:

1. Click on Verify Alignment in the Service Tool, under the Service tab
(see Figure 59)

Figure 66 Verify Alignment dialog will appear if full collimator alignment was performed with
L30 SW 8.1 or earlier.

2. Verify that the Collimator height um is set to a positive number (it might be for example
235000). Click Exposure and expose.
3. Reduce the Collimator height um by 7000 um (following the example above, we should
set the height to 228000). Click Exposure and expose.
4. The green field (asics that are still counting at the same rate) should be properly centred
inside the blue fields (asics that count less). See example of correct alignment in Figure 67
(left). If the collimator is not aligned, see an example in Figure 67 (right), a full collimator
alignment has to be performed.

<80 um difference between left and right margin is an acceptable level of

accuracy.
Notice
If the difference is near 80 um, run a Daily quality control with the C-arm
in 0, +90 and -90 degrees angle respectively. No artefacts should be
visible.

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Figure 67 Verify alignment.

Left: Good alignment
Right: Bad alignment

Handling irregularities
See section 20.3 for information regarding handling failed calibrations.

11.3.5 Geometry calibration

Geometry calibration sets the trig positions for readouts and determines the relative positions of
the sensors in the detector.

Procedure
1. Click on Geometry calibration in the Service Tool,
under the Service tab.
2. Place the Geometry and image field phantom on the
patient support. Compress. Press Compression Done
and hold down the exposure button.
3. A progress bar is shown and the current step is
indicated. Figure 68 Geometry phantom.
(Part no. 1012092)
4. The user is informed whether the calibration was
successful or not.
5. The status field is updated.
6. It is advisable to check the channel mask after this
calibration, especially if the calibration was unsuccessful.

Handling irregularities
If the Geometry calibration fails:
1. Verify that the phantom is correctly mounted on the patient support. The front guiding
edge of the phantom should touch the front end of the patient support.
2. Run Verify alignment.

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3. If the alignment is correct, check if the detector touches the patient support. This can be
performed
a. by checking the Scan speed in Measurements in the Service tool. If the scan speed
diagram shows unexpected peaks, the detector might touch the patient support.
b. or by removing the side covers of the C-arm. A visual check can performed
verifying that there is free space between the detector and patient support.
If no problems are found performing the above described actions, contact product support. See
section 20.3 for more information regarding failed calibrations.

11.3.6 Skew calibration

This calibration should only be run upon direct instructions from product
Notice
support!

Skew calibration measures and compensates for the deflection of the detector as an effect of
gravity.

Procedure
1. Click on Skew calibration in the Service Tool, under the Service tab.
2. Rotate the C-arm to -90 degrees. Place the Geometry and image field phantom on the
patient support. Compress gently, press Compression Done and hold down the exposure
button.
3. A progress bar is shown and the current step is indicated.
4. The user is informed whether the calibration was successful or not.

Handling irregularities
Contact product support if the calibration fails,

11.3.7 AEC calibration

An AEC calibration compensates exposure for shut down channels and detector elements, as well
as fluctuations in X-ray output. The AEC calibration then generates exposure tables based on data
from the current Flatfield calibration. It is a part of Full calibration, but may be done separately in
this way.

Procedure
1. Click AEC calibration in the Service Tool, under the Service tab.
2. The user is informed whether the calibration was successful or not.

Handling irregularities
AEC calibration is a part of Full Calibration that is performed on regular basis. However if an
AEC calibration would fail, probable explanations might be that the X-ray tube is new and has to
be “burned in” by performing a number of exposures before output is ok. A second explanation
might be that the X-ray tube is old and need to be replaced.
See section 20.3 for information regarding handling failed calibrations.

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11.3.8 Compression paddles

This calibration measures and compensates for the deflection of the compression paddles as they
are compressed, so that the compression height can be correctly determined.

Procedure
1. Click Compression paddles in the Service Tool, under the Service tab.
2. All configured compression paddles are shown to the upper left. The text “(calibrated)” is
added after the names of the paddles that are already calibrated. See Figure 80.
3. Mark the compression paddle you want to calibrate.
4. Place the compression height calibration phantom on the patient support.
5. Enter the True height of the phantom.
6. Compress to a certain force between 50 and 200 N. Click Measure. The measured values
are displayed in the plot.
7. Compress to a different force between 50 N and 200 N. Click Measure. Repeat this until
there are at least five points in the plot.
8. Click Accept. The text “(calibrated)” is added after the name of the compression paddle.
9. Mark another compression paddle to calibrate or close the window.

Only calibrated compression paddles are possible to choose via the

Notice
application run on the Acquisition Workstation.

It is also possible to test a calibrated compression paddle, by checking the Test box. Then the
height should equal the real height of the object, regardless of the compression force. A calibrated
compression paddle can be rejected (i.e. marked as not calibrated) by pressing Reject.

Outgoing control
After the compression paddles have been calibrated:
Compress all the way to the patient support. Check that the display shows 0 mm to 2 mm
and no compression force.

Handling irregularities
1. Check if the compression force measurement is correct.
2. The calibration might fail if the values are too spread. Repeat the procedure until it is
successful.
See section 20.3 for more information regarding handling failed calibrations.

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