Computed Radiographic Acquisition Technologies

RC325B

Computed Radiographic Acquisition Technologies

Refresher Courses

Presented on November 29, 2005
Presented as part of RC325: Update Course: Advances in Digital Radiography—Digital Radiography Acquisition Technologies

Ralph Schaetzing PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

1) Describe the advantages of digital radiography (including CR) relative to screen/film systems. 2) Describe the fundamental steps in the CR imaging cycle. 3) Describe the physical structure of a storage phosphor screen. 4) Describe the functions of major components of a CR scanner. 5) Describe the Input/Output relationship of a CR system. 6) Identify the factors that affect the spatial resolution and noise in CR systems. 7) Describe the latest CR developments. 8) Survey commercial offerings in CR detector technology.

Computed Radiography (CR) is the earliest form of digital radiography (DR). Despite its age, it is still going strong, and still growing, after almost 25 years of clinical use. Part of CR's strength derives from the robustness of its two primary components: the scanner and the storage phosphor screen, or imaging plate. Another element in CR's continuing use is its image quality relative to competing technologies. Finally, CR's relatively low acquisition and operational costs also contribute to its ongiong success. This presentation will describe the basic components of CR technology, and how they function together to produce high-quality digital images. Depending on the system design and implementation details, various output performance levels can be achieved. The presentation will describe some of the design issues and trade-offs in CR systems, and their impact on relevant performance metrics, such as image quality and throughput. Today, there is considerable ongoing research in CR, not only to optimize current scanning technologies and detector materials, but also to develop new CR system concepts. The presentation will conclude with a survey of the current commercial state of the art in CR, and an overview of future directions for its technologies and its applications.