Investigation of CdTe, GaAs, Se and Si as Sensor Materials for Mammography

Abstract

Despite the benefits of mammography investigations, some studies have shown that X-ray exposure from the mammography screening itself can statistically cause breast cancer in a small fraction of women. Therefore, a dose reduction in mammography is desirable. At the same time, there is a demand for a higher spatial resolution in mammographic imaging. The most promising way to achieve these goals is the use of advanced photonprocessing semiconductor X-ray detectors with optimum sensor materials. This study addresses the investigation of the optimum semiconductor sensor material for mammography in combination with the photon-processing detector Medipix3RX. The influence of K-shell fluorescence from the sensor material on the achievable contrast-to-noise ratio is investigated, as well as the attenuation efficiency. The three different sensor materials, CdTe, GaAs, and Si are studied, showing advances of CdTe-sensors for mammography. Furthermore, a comparison of the contrast-to-noise ratio between a clinical Se-detector and Medipix3RX detectors with Si-and CdTe-sensors is shown using a self-produced mammography phantom that is based on real human tissue.

Measurement and analysis of the mean free path governing high-energy electron scattering in CdTe, via off-axis electron holography

“…In a high-resistivity single crystal form, as studied in this work, it has been used for many years as a detector in gamma-ray astronomy [1][2][3] and recently is attracting interest for medical imaging. 4 A particular advantage of CdTe is direct high-energy photon detection with good stopping power, along with the ability to discriminate the photon-energies in a multi-source spectrum. Recently, CdTe has also been mentioned as a candidate material for direct electron detection, 5 underpinning the need for deeper understanding of electron scattering processes in CdTe.…”

Theoretical comparison and optimization of cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide photon-counting detectors for contrast-enhanced spectral mammography

“…While previous studies have compared image quality between CdTe and GaAs PCDs in a mammographic setting, the current studies herein are focused to CESM because of the energy range examined. For example, Procz et al 24 evaluated and compared the image quality of CdTe and GaAs PCDs using a mammography phantom and found that the CdTe detector gave better spatial resolution and contrast-to-noise ratios than the GaAs detector. However, the x-ray spectra used in their study was set to 28 kVp.…”

CNR performance of semiconductor materials for X-ray imaging of breast calcifications

“…The newly hybrid photon counting-detectors, developed during the last two decades, such as Medipix [19,20], could impact significantly X-ray direct detection digital mammography. These detectors allow the usage of different semiconductor sensor materials such as Si, GaAs, CdTe, and Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT), and are capable of storing information of each single incident X-ray photon, reducing dark current present in charge integration systems, reflecting in images with higher signal-to-noise, higher spatial resolution and allowing single-exposure spectral imaging [21][22][23]. Recently, there have been new X-ray sensor materials under investigation such as perovskite-based semiconductors that deserve also attention for their potential capabilities in digital X-ray mammography [24].…”