Characterization of a sCMOS-based high-resolution imaging system

Abstract

The detection system is a key part of any imaging station. Here the performance of the novel sCMOS-based detection system installed at the ID17 biomedical beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and dedicated to high-resolution computed-tomography imaging is analysed. The system consists of an X-ray-visible-light converter, a visible-light optics and a PCO.Edge5.5 sCMOS detector. Measurements of the optical characteristics, the linearity of the system, the detection lag, the modulation transfer function, the normalized power spectrum, the detective quantum efficiency and the photon transfer curve are presented and discussed. The study was carried out at two different X-ray energies (35 and 50 keV) using both 2× and 1× optical magnification systems. The final pixel size resulted in 3.1 and 6.2 µm, respectively. The measured characteristic parameters of the PCO.Edge5.5 are in good agreement with the manufacturer specifications. Fast imaging can be achieved using this detection system, but at the price of unavoidable losses in terms of image quality. The way in which the X-ray beam inhomogeneity limited some of the performances of the system is also discussed.

TomoPress—In Situ Synchrotron-Based Microtomography under Axial Load

“…Operating the beamline with minimal optical elements, that is, only attenuators (1 mm diamond, 0.7 mm aluminum) and a beryllium window (0.5 mm) ensures high sensitivity by means of X-ray phase contrast. In order to image the complete specimen, a medium resolution detector was chosen: two lenses (Hasselblad, focal length 300 mm and 100 mm) facing each other in tandem-like geometry project the luminescence image of a GGG:Eu (Eu-doped Gd 3 Ga 5 O 12 , 1000 µm thick) onto the sensor of the inhouse-developed CCD camera FReLoN (type: e2v) [53]. The corresponding effective pixel size of the indirect detector is 5.1 µm.…”

Characterizing pearls structures using X-ray phase-contrast and neutron imaging: a pilot study

“…The obtained X-ray beam is quasi-monochromatic (ΔE/E ∼10 −4 ) and quasi-parallel, presenting a divergence <1 mrad, horizontally, and <0.1 mrad, vertically. The imaging detector was a PCO edge 5.5, a 16 bit sCMOS camera with 2560 × 2160 pixels, coupled with a 2x optics and a 350 thick YAG scintillator, resulting in a final pixel size of 3.1 m 38 . The samples were placed at the distance of 2.3 m from the detection system and imaged with an X-ray energy of 50 keV.…”

Multiscale pink-beam microCT imaging at the ESRF-ID17 biomedical beamline

“…Details of the motors installed on the tomographic tower are reported in Table 3. The ID17 detection systems include a CCD FReLoN (2048 Â 2048 pixels) camera (Coan et al, 2006) and two sCMOS PCO edge 5.5 (2560 Â 2160 pixels) cameras (Mittone et al, 2017). All these imaging sensors are coupled with indirect conversion optics (Optique Peter, France).…”

“…Images were acquired with the DMM set at an energy of 40 keV. The detection system used with the DMM beam is the one described in the work of Mittone et al (2017), combined with an X-ray optics determining a final voxel size of 3.1 mm  3.1 mm  3.1 mm. The scintillator used for this experiment was a 250 (50) mm-thick LuAG:Ce for the DMM (pink beam).…”