Quantitative analysis of an enlarged area Solid State X-ray Image Intensifier (SSXII) detector based on Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Device (EMCCD) technology.

Present day treatment for neurovascular pathological conditions involves the use of devices with very small features such as stents, coils, and balloons; hence, these interventional procedures demand high resolution x-ray imaging under fluoroscopic conditions to provide the capability to guide the deployment of these fine endovascular devices. To address this issue, a high resolution x-ray detector based on EMCCD technology is being developed. The EMCCD field-of-view is enlarged using a fiber-optic taper so that the detector features an effective pixel size of 37 µm giving it a Nyquist frequency of 13.5 lp/mm, which is significantly higher than that of the state of the art Flat Panel Detectors (FPD). Quantitative analysis of the detector, including gain calibration, instrumentation noise equivalent exposure (INEE) and modulation transfer function (MTF) determination, are presented in this work. The gain of the detector is a function of the detector temperature; with the detector cooled to 5° C, the highest relative gain that could be achieved was calculated to be 116 times. At this gain setting, the lowest INEE was measured to be 0.6 µR/frame. The MTF, measured using the edge method, was over 2% up to 7 cycles/ mm. To evaluate the performance of the detector under clinical conditions, an aneurysm model was placed over an anthropomorphic head phantom and a coil was guided into the aneurysm under fluoroscopic guidance using the detector. Image sequences from the procedure are presented demonstrating the high resolution of this SSXII.