A new X-ray imaging detector based on a 2D-THCOBRA micropatterned structure using a simple position readout is proposed. It consists of a hybrid device that combines the properties of a THGEM and a 2D-MHSP in a single structure, having two charge multiplication stages reaching the demanded gains for the use of charge division readout methods.For position determination, the new 10×10 cm 2 2D-THCOBRA structure uses two orthogonal resistive lines located at the end of the anode and top electrodes. The charge signal pulses collected at the end of each resistive line are digitized and processed in order to determine the center-ofgravity of the electron avalanche distribution.The detector uses a preamplification stage performed by a THGEM, followed by the 2D-THCOBRA, being operated in Ne/5%CH 4 at atmospheric pressure. A characterization of the detector in terms of charge gain was made as a function of the voltage applied to the electrodes of the 2D-THCOBRA structure. The energy resolution of the system was also measured, envisaging Energy Weighting Technique (EWT) applications.The system characterization in terms of spatial resolution is presented together with imaging examples to evaluate its performance in X-ray imaging applications.

The calculated position resolutions for X-ray photons (1-60 keV) in pure noble gases at atmospheric pressure are presented. In this work we show the influence of the atomic shells and the detector dimensions on the intrinsic position resolution of the used noble gas. The calculated results were obtained by using a new software tool, Degrad, and compared to the available experimental data.

In the present work a new system for Quantum Computed Tomography was developed and tested, envisaging its application to small animals and mammography imaging. It consists of a Micro-Patterned Gas Detector based on the Micro-Hole and Strip Plate, operating in single-photon counting mode. The Micro-Hole and Strip Plate allows the storage of the position of interaction and the energy information of each single X-ray photon. With this information it is possible to select the energy range to reconstruct the images of cross sections, enabling the enhancement of different structures according to their attenuation coeficients. It is also possible to use the energy information to weight each photon in the sinogram construction. In the present work we consider three types of weighting factors giving rise to three different types of images, namely Integrating, Counting and Energy Weighting Technique (EWT). For each CT acquisition the system allows us to construct any of these types of images without the need for extra measurements. Some features of the CT image improve with the application of the Energy Weighting Technique, namely the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), the image Contrast, and the Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR). The maximum contrast enhancement was about 23%, the maximum SNR improvement was about 22% and the maximum CNR improvement was about 31% between integrating and EWT images.

Abstract:Discrepancies between the measured and simulated gain in Thick Micropatterned gaseous detectors (MPGD), namely THGEM, have been observed by several groups. In order to simulate the electron avalanches and the gain the community relies on the calculations performed in Garfield++, known to produce differences of 2 orders of magnitude in comparison to the experimental data for thick MPGDs.In this work, simulations performed for Ne/5%CH 4 , Ar/5%CH 4 and Ar/30%CO 2 mixtures shows that Garfield++ is able to perfectly describe the experimental data if Penning effect is included in the simulation. The comparison between the number of excitations which may lead to a Penning transfer, is shown for THGEM and GEM, explaining the less pronounced gain discrepancies observed in GEM.

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