A new needle-crystalline computed radiography detector.

The most successful digital radiography detectors to date have been storage phosphor plates used in computed radiography (CR). The detector is cheap, has good producibility, and is robust. Direct radiography (DR) systems are being developed based on flat-panel technology. Better image quality is claimed for some DR systems. On the other hand, DR detectors have low producibility and robustness, and a high price. A new CR detector is being developed at Agfa that combines the advantages of CR and DR. It is a storage phosphor plate made up of needle-shaped crystals. The phosphor efficiently converts absorbed x-ray quanta into photostimulable centers for efficient read out. It has a large dynamic range and its emission is efficiently detected with both photomultiplier tube (PMT) and charge coupled device (CCD). It is shown that CR systems based on the new detector offer image quality that matches that of the best DR systems.