Computed Radiography Lectures on CR Systems

Resident Physics Lectures
Computed Radiography
Prof. J.K Tonui, PhD
School of Medicine,
Department of Radiology & Imaging
Learning Objectives
 At the end of this lecture, the student should be able to:
 Describe the components and functions of the CR imaging
system.
 Describe the operation of CR imaging systems.
 Describe how the PSP straps the image and how the image is
read and digitized.

 Describe limitations of PSP and how to overcome them.
2 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

Introduction
 Computed radiography (CR) imaging is similar to
convectional X-ray imaging with the following exception:

 Uses an electronic system to capture and display image, and
 Uses radiation detectors other than x-ray film as IR, and
 Capture image as an analog electrical signal, which
 Is then converted into digital signal, and fed to a computer
system for processing of image for display and storage.

Computed radiography
 CR
 Uses photo-stimulable phosphor (PSP) detector, and
 Unlike those used in II such as Gd2O2S, which emit light
instantaneously when struck by x-rays, the PSP behaves

differently when struck by x-rays, because
 They emit light with a delay and are also called storage phosphors
or imaging plates.

 CR x-ray tube
 Is compatible with the convectional x-ray unit designed for
film-screening imaging.
 The exceptions:
 Needs installation of CR reader and
 Uses plate cassette instead of screen-film cassette, and
 The plate is made up of PSP instead of the film.


CR System

CR Procedures
 Stage 1
 The pt. is exposed by x-ray just like in convectional radiography.
 Stage 2
 After exposure of CR plate, it is removed and loaded into a reader, and
 The reader removes the plate and exposes it to a laser light, which
stimulates the x-ray energy trapped in the phosphor.
 Stage 3 & 4
 The light emitted from the plate is collected, quantified (scaling),
digitized and displayed.

Complete CR Imaging Process

CR Procedures
 The imaging plate is mechanically removed from cassette
 Plate is translated across a moving stage and scanned by a laser beam;
 The laser stimulate emission of trapped energy in plate which is then
emitted as visible light;

 This visible light is collected by fiber optic guide and directed to PMT
tube, where it is converted into electronic signal, digitize and stored, and
 Thereafter, the plate is exposed to white light to erase any residual
trapped energy and readied it for reuse and

 The plate is then return to the cassette and is ready for next exposure.

Digital Image
 Digital image
 Is generated by a CR reader, and
 Several things can be done on this image:
o Can be stored temporarily on the local hard-disk of the DR computer
system, or
o Can be printed on a laser printer connected to the CR reader to produce
hard copies of the images, or

o Can be stored permanently in the department’s PACS to be accessed by
radiologist for interpretation and archival.

Imaging Plate of a CR system
 Fig,
 Shows structure of imaging plate, and
 Commercial plates are made of
flexible plastics coated with phosphor

crystal of thickness 150 to 400 m,
and
 Kept in in a light-tight cassette or
enclosure.
 The imaging plate
 Is purely an analog device, hence produces analog image, which
 Is read out as analog and converted into digital image using electronic techniques,
and
 It uses a phosphor material which absorbs x-rays energy and convert to light
both directly (small fraction) and indirectly (large fraction), and

 The later process is important in CR imaging where absorbed x-rays excite
electrons and cause then to be trapped at intermediate energy levels in the

forbidden gap.

 The CR imaging plate
 Is coated with a photo-stimulable phosphor or photo-storage
phosphor (PSP), which

 Are made from 85% BaFBr and 15% BaFI, activated with a
small quantity of europium, and designated as BaFBr:Eu, and

 Activation/doping is used because it creates defects in BaFBr
crystals that allow electrons to be trapped more efficiently.

 When the plate is exposed to x-rays,
 Electrons are excited from valence band to conduction band, and some
of them get trapped in the F-centers or crystallographic defect, and
 These trapped electrons form a latent image originally carried by x-rays but
as a spatial distribution of electrons trapped at high-energy states, and

 The number of filled traps is proportional to the amount of x-rays
energy absorbed, and
 These processes of image formations is illustrated in the figure in next
two slides.

Formation of Latent Image in CR Plate
 Figure
 Shows the electron transport from valence band to conduction
band, then returning to be trapped in the forbidden zone.

Formation of Latent Image in CR Plate
 In PSP
 X-rays raise electrons from
ground level to excited state

and
 Leave them trapped in higher
states in the band gaps, which

 Then form latent or invisible
image.

Reading Exposed CR Plate
 The exposed imaging plate
 Is removed from x-ray equipment, and
 Then loaded into the CR reader, which
 Then reads it across the plate using a laser light, which
 Produces analog electrical signals, which in turn
 Are passed through an ADC which digitalize them for image
processing and display on the workstation computers, and

 Thereafter erases the imaging plate for reuse.

Reading Exposed CR Plate
 Figure
 Shows the action of selective heating with
a fine infrared laser beam (laser readout)

where the trapped electron (carrying X-
ray exposure/image information) is
ejected from the forbidden zone back
into the valency band, and
 This movement causes light emission
which is collected by a photosensitive

detector as image data.
Reading CR Plate
 A reader scans across plate with laser
Laser Beam
light, and
 The laser releases electrons trapped
Higher Energy
in high-energy states, and Elect ron -
St at e
 As the electrons fall to low
energy states, they emit energy in

form of visible light, whose
 Intensity is proportional to theLower Energy - - - - - - - - -
Elect ron - - - - -
- - - -
incident x-ray radiation. St at e - - -
- - - - - -

Write/Read CR Plate

Reading/Scanning CR Plate
 The imaging plate (see
figure):
 Is translated along the
readout stage in the vertical

direction (y-direction), and
 A scanning laser beam
interrogates the plate

horizontally (x-direction).


 From previous slide, the scanning system consists of:
 A red laser source ( 700 nm) which produces finely focused light, and
 This laser light is scanned across the plate using a rotating multifaceted
mirror, which
 Strikes the phosphor at a location (x,y), the trapped energy from the x-ray
exposure at that location is released from the imaging plate, and
 A fraction of the emitted light ( 300-500 nm or blue) travels thro’ fiber
optic light guide and reaches a PMT, which

 Produces analog electric signal, which is digitized and stored in memory.

Image Display

Image Display
 In image production in CR,
 The image is essentially built point by point and line by line,
 In order to give a digital image resolution of up to 4k x 4k pixels, and
 Typical size of a pixel size is 0.1 μm x 0.1 μm.
 The imaging cycle
 Is completed by flooding the exposed plate with a high intensity light

from sodium discharge lamp, which
 Erases any remnants of the latent image and readies the plate for
reuse.

CR Resolution
 Spatial resolution of CR depends on the
 Phosphor plate thickness;
 Readout time, and
 Diameter of the laser beam
o which is typically about 100 μm.
 Note that,
 The scattering of laser light in the phosphor material make the laser beam to
diverge or spread out more, and

 Hence, results to a broader stimulated area than that with original laser
diameter.
Comparison Film-Screen & CR

Advantages of CR
 The major advantage of CR is that
 Existing radiology rooms can be used for this technology.
 In order words, radiography department can be digitalized at a

relatively low cost, by adopting existing equipments and installing
readers only, and
 In addition, due to the similarities with traditional radiography
(see Fig in previous slide), the learning curve is much shorter

for CR.

Construction of CR Imaging Plates
 The CR imaging plate
 Is very similar to an intensifying screen in its structure, and
 It consists of tiny phosphor grains of  5 μm, which
 Are embedded in an organic binder which is coated onto a substrate material.
 The plate is turbid, hence
 Scatters light (both excitation laser, and emitted light) strongly &
isotropically, (see next slide), hence

 The light diffusion limits the useful thickness of the phosphor layer.

Light diffusion limits thickness of SPS
 Implications of the
finite width of laser
beam and phosphor
layer on the spatial
resolution in CR.

Imaging Plate
 X-ray absorption efficiency
 Could be improved by increasing thickness of phosphor layer, but
 Lateral diffusion of light in the phosphor layer will increase in
proportion to the layer thickness, which impairs spatial resolution.

 Sensitivity will not increase much when the layer exceeds a
certain thickness, because

 Most of the light stimulated deep in the layer will not reach the
surface for detection.

Improving Sensitivity
 Sensitivity limitation can be overcome
 By using a transparent substrate to make imaging plate, and
 Coating both sides with phosphors, and then
 Detecting the luminescence emitted by the photo-stimulation
process from both sides of plate, i.e. from the front and the back
sides of the plate (like double emulsion film), and
 The good news id that it is requires two light-collection systems,
but only one laser beam.

Improving sensitivity
 The improved sensitivity
 Is achieved because conversion efficiency in the convectional type
is ~30%, and hence

 Both sides will give double, i.e. 60%.
 In addition,
 The sensitivity has been improved by using a structured phosphor,
o e.g. CsBr: Eu as the imaging plate

Limitation of CR
 Fundamental limitation of CR
 Is time required to read latent image, because
 The decay time of the phosphor luminescence is ~0.7 μs, hence
 Reading an image formed by a 3000 x 3000 pixels, can take over half a
minute to complete since a single pixel is read at a time, but

 The reading can be speeded up by scanning a line of pixels, where
 A full line of pixels is stimulated and read out simultaneously instead of a
single pixel.

CR Line-Scanning
 The line-scanning requires
 A linear array of laser light sources, e.g. laser diodes, and
 A linear array of photo-detectors as wide as the imaging plate, and
 Such scans reduce readout times to less than 10 s, and
 Furthermore, linear scanning mechanism can be built into the image
receptor cassette, but
 CR plates used in clinical radiography produce a range of unique
artifacts (reviewed by Cesar et al, 2001).

Computed Radiography Lectures on CR Systems

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Resident Physics Lectures

Prof. J.K Tonui, PhD

 Describe the components and functions of the CR imaging

read and digitized.

2 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

convectional X-ray imaging with the following exception:

 Uses radiation detectors other than x-ray film as IR, and

 Capture image as an analog electrical signal, which

 Is then converted into digital signal, and fed to a computer

system for processing of image for display and storage.

3 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Uses photo-stimulable phosphor (PSP) detector, and

 Unlike those used in II such as Gd2O2S, which emit light

instantaneously when struck by x-rays, the PSP behaves

4 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Is compatible with the convectional x-ray unit designed for

 Needs installation of CR reader and

 Uses plate cassette instead of screen-film cassette, and

 The plate is made up of PSP instead of the film.

5 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

6 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

7 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 The pt. is exposed by x-ray just like in convectional radiography.

 After exposure of CR plate, it is removed and loaded into a reader, and

stimulates the x-ray energy trapped in the phosphor.

 The light emitted from the plate is collected, quantified (scaling),

digitized and displayed.

8 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

9 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Plate is translated across a moving stage and scanned by a laser beam;

 The laser stimulate emission of trapped energy in plate which is then

emitted as visible light;

trapped energy and readied it for reuse and

10 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Is generated by a CR reader, and

 Several things can be done on this image:

o Can be stored temporarily on the local hard-disk of the DR computer

hard copies of the images, or

radiologist for interpretation and archival.

 Shows structure of imaging plate, and

 Commercial plates are made of

flexible plastics coated with phosphor

 Is purely an analog device, hence produces analog image, which

both directly (small fraction) and indirectly (large fraction), and

electrons and cause then to be trapped at intermediate energy levels in the

13 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Is coated with a photo-stimulable phosphor or photo-storage

phosphor (PSP), which

small quantity of europium, and designated as BaFBr:Eu, and

crystals that allow electrons to be trapped more efficiently.

14 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

of them get trapped in the F-centers or crystallographic defect, and

as a spatial distribution of electrons trapped at high-energy states, and

energy absorbed, and

 These processes of image formations is illustrated in the figure in next

15 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 Shows the electron transport from valence band to conduction

band, then returning to be trapped in the forbidden zone.

16 RIB 810, 811 & 812 Imaging Physics 8/19/2019

 X-rays raise electrons from

ground level to excited state

states in the band gaps, which