Fabrication of thin film x-ray sensor using particle-in-binder method for automatic exposure control in digital radiography

Abstract

An automatic exposure control (AEC) detector is a control device that ensures consistent x-ray image quality and limits patient exposure in digital radiography. Among several kinds of AEC detectors, solid-state sensors offer several advantages such as geometric efficiency due to small thickness, high sensitivity, fast reaction time, and excellent stability. Commercially, the use of single-crystal silicon sensors for AEC detector has grown over time, but is still severely limited by large-area production techniques and mechanically fragile properties. Therefore, our study focused on developing a method of fabricating solid-state sensors that do not suffer from these limitations. The particle-in-binder method was used to fabricate silicon dioxide-based photoconductor films. Because silicon dioxide has a low atomic number and a low work function, it is a suitable material for generating sufficient electron-hole pairs by incident x-rays as well as not negatively affect the image detector of the digital radiography. To verify the feasibility of the silicon dioxide film as an AEC detector, electrical properties such as x-ray transmission and x-ray linearity were measured and compared with those of a commercialized silicon film. Over 90% x-ray transmission was achieved using a 500 μ m silicon dioxide film, which is suitable for an AEC detector. Also, an error below 3% was obtained from both x-ray current and voltage linearity tests. The results of bending tests demonstrated the properties of the silicon dioxide film to be more mechanically strong and stable compared with the commercialized silicon film. These properties were a result of the use of binder materials, which resulted in the flexibility of the film.