Recent Development in X-Ray Imaging Technology: Future and Challenges

Abstract

X-ray imaging is a low-cost, powerful technology that has been extensively used in medical diagnosis and industrial nondestructive inspection. The ability of X-rays to penetrate through the body presents great advances for noninvasive imaging of its internal structure. In particular, the technological importance of X-ray imaging has led to the rapid development of high-performance X-ray detectors and the associated imaging applications. Here, we present an overview of the recent development of X-ray imaging-related technologies since the discovery of X-rays in the 1890s and discuss the fundamental mechanism of diverse X-ray imaging instruments, as well as their advantages and disadvantages on X-ray imaging performance. We also highlight various applications of advanced X-ray imaging in a diversity of fields. We further discuss future research directions and challenges in developing advanced next-generation materials that are crucial to the fabrication of flexible, low-dose, high-resolution X-ray imaging detectors.

Thick-junction perovskite X-ray detectors: processing and optoelectronic considerations

“…The modulation transfer function (MTF) can be adapted to measure the spatial resolution of the X-ray imaging detector, and the slanted-edge method is the common strategy. 41 As shown in Fig. 5f, the MTF decreases with the increase in spatial frequency.…”

“…1,40 When X-rays travel through a matter, they will be transmitted, absorbed, or scattered. The absorption process mainly depends on the attenuation ability of the matter and follows the Beer–Lambert law (1): 41 I = I 0 e − μ ρd ,where I is the intensity of transmitted X-ray photons, I 0 is the incident intensity of X-ray photons, μ is the mass attenuation coefficient, ρ is the density of materials, and d is the thickness of the matter. The linear attenuation coefficient μρ , also expressed as α , is often used to describe the interaction probability of a photon with a defined energy in a specific material.…”

Realizing Simultaneous X‐Ray Imaging and Dosimetry Using Phosphor‐Based Detectors with High Memory Stability and Convenient Readout Process

“…Although the performance at low integrated X-ray doses still needs to be improved for applications related to, e.g. medical imaging, [60][61][62][63][64][65] the high radiation resistance and large dose range allow using Ba 2 SiO 4 :Eu detectors for applications where high integrated doses and large dose ranges are encountered such as microbeam radiation therapy, food irradiation and detection of highly radioactively-contaminated areas. [45,53] Due to the variation of…”

Next generation lanthanide doped nanoscintillators and photon converters

“…The recent development of X-ray imaging technologies, including digital radiography, which in contrast to traditional film-screen radiography show a much wider and linear dynamic range and, therefore, reduces the risk of overexposure or underexposure [217]. This new technology inspires us to explore NSs based low-dose digital radiography in the future, and for proper processing and subsequent further analysis requires application of machine learning and artificial intelligence.…”