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Purpose: Digital a-Si flat panel (FP) x-ray detectors can exhibit detector lag, or residual signal, of several percent that can cause ghosting in projection images or severe shading artifacts, known as the radar artifact, in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) reconstructions. A major contributor to detector lag is believed to be defect states, or traps, in the a-Si layer of the FP. Software methods to characterize and correct for the detector lag exist, but they may make assumptions such as system linearity and time invariance, which may not be true. The purpose of this work is to investigate a new hardware based method to reduce lag in an a-Si FP and to evaluate its effectiveness at removing shading artifacts in CBCT reconstructions. The feasibility of a novel, partially hardware based solution is also examined. Methods: The proposed hardware solution for lag reduction requires only a minor change to the FP. For pulsed irradiation, the proposed method inserts a new operation step between the readout and data collection stages. During this new stage the photodiode is operated in a forward bias mode, which fills the defect states with charge. A Varian 4030CB panel was modified to allow for operation in the forward bias mode. The contrast of residual lag ghosts was measured for lag frames 2 and 100 after irradiation ceased for standard and forward bias modes. Detector step response, lag, SNR, modulation transfer function (MTF), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) measurements were made with standard and forward bias firmware. CBCT data of pelvic and head phantoms were also collected. Results: Overall, the 2nd and 100th detector lag frame residual signals were reduced 70%-88% using the new method. SNR, MTF, and DQE measurements show a small decrease in collected signal and a small increase in noise. The forward bias hardware successfully reduced the radar artifact in the CBCT reconstruction of the pelvic and head phantoms by 48%-81%. Conclusions: Overall, the forward bias method has been found to greatly reduce detector lag ghosts in projection data and the radar artifact in CBCT reconstructions. The method is limited to improvements of the a-Si photodiode response only. A future hybrid mode may overcome any limitations of this method.

Lag and sensitivity modulation are well known temporal artifacts of a-Si photodiode based flat panel detectors 1 . Both effects are caused by charge carriers being trapped in the semiconductor. Trapping and releasing of these carriers is a statistical process with time constants much longer than the frame time of flat panel detectors. One way to reduce these temporal artifacts is to keep the traps filled by applying a pulse of light over the entire detector area every frame before the x-ray exposure 2 . This paper describes an alternative method, forward biasing the a-Si photodiodes and supplying free carriers to fill the traps. The array photodiodes are forward biased and then reversed biased again every frame between the panel readout and x-ray exposure. The method requires no change to the mechanical construction of the detector, only minor modifications of the detector electronics and no image post processing. An existing flat panel detector was modified and evaluated for lag and sensitivity modulation. The required changes of the panel configuration, readout scheme and readout timing are presented in this paper. The results of applying the new technique are presented and compared to the standard mode of operation. The improvements are better than an order of magnitude for both sensitivity modulation and lag; lowering their values to levels comparable to the scintillator afterglow. To differentiate the contribution of the a-Si array, from that of the scintillator, a large area light source was used. Possible implementations and applications of the method are discussed.