阅读说明：本技术 多能谱射线探测器及多能谱成像系统 (Multi-energy spectrum ray detector and multi-energy spectrum imaging system ) 是由 吴宏新 王亚杰 张文宇 何艾静 张康平 孙宇 王继斌 于 2020-12-29 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及X射线成像装置技术领域,提供一种多能谱射线探测器及多能谱成像系统,该多能谱射线探测器包括：探测器本体,具有射线接收端；射线滤波机构,设置在探测器本体的射线接收端,滤波机构上具有并列设置的至少两种滤波单元,不同的滤波单元将同一射线分离成的射线均具有不同的能量；面阵探测机构,设置在探测器本体的射线接收端,面阵探测机构上具有并列设置的多个晶体单元,晶体单元与射线滤波机构的滤波单元一一对应设置,通过晶体单元用于接收被滤波单元分离的具有不同能量的射线。该多能谱射线探测器,在进行双能或多能成像时,一次扫描即可获取被扫描物上的目标位置的扫描图像,提高了检测效率,降低了辐射对患者带来的伤害。(The invention relates to the technical field of X-ray imaging devices, and provides a multi-energy spectrum ray detector and a multi-energy spectrum imaging system, wherein the multi-energy spectrum ray detector comprises: the detector body is provided with a ray receiving end; the ray filtering mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body and is provided with at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel, and rays separated from the same ray by different filtering units have different energies; the area array detection mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body, a plurality of crystal units are arranged in parallel on the area array detection mechanism, the crystal units are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the filtering units of the ray filtering mechanism, and the crystal units are used for receiving rays with different energies separated by the filtering units. When the multi-energy spectrum ray detector is used for dual-energy or multi-energy imaging, a scanning image of a target position on a scanned object can be acquired through one-time scanning, so that the detection efficiency is improved, and the harm of radiation to a patient is reduced.)

1. A multi-spectral radiation detector, comprising:

the detector body is provided with a ray receiving end;

the ray filtering mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body, at least two filtering units are arranged on the ray filtering mechanism in parallel, and rays separated from the same ray by different filtering units have different energies;

the area array detection mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body and is positioned on the inner side of the ray filtering mechanism, a plurality of crystal units are arranged on the area array detection mechanism in parallel, the crystal units and the filtering units of the ray filtering mechanism are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence mode, and the crystal units are used for receiving rays with different energies, which are separated by the filtering units.

2. The multi-energy spectrum radiation detector of claim 1, wherein said radiation filtering mechanism comprises: the substrate is of a frame structure, and the filtering unit is arranged in the frame of the substrate.

3. The multi-energy spectrum ray detector of claim 2, wherein the plurality of filtering units on the substrate are alternately arranged in sequence along the transverse direction and/or the longitudinal direction.

4. The multi-energy spectrum ray detector of claim 2, wherein the filtering units are square or circular, and a plurality of kinds of the filtering units are alternately arranged on the substrate in sequence along the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction.

5. The multi-energy spectrum ray detector of claim 2, wherein the filter units are rectangular, and a plurality of filter units are alternately arranged on the substrate in sequence along a transverse direction or a longitudinal direction.

6. The multi-energy spectrum radiation detector of any one of claims 1-5, wherein at least one of the plurality of filtering units is a cavity structure.

7. The multi-energy spectrum radiation detector of any one of claims 2-5, wherein the array of filter elements is a single layer structure on the substrate.

8. The multi-energy spectrum ray detector of any one of claims 2-4, wherein the frame of the substrate has a grid-like hollow structure therein, and the grid-like hollow structure is used for connecting the plurality of filtering units respectively.

9. The multi-energy spectrum ray detector of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the shape of the crystal unit is the same as the shape of the filter unit;

the area of the crystal unit is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit.

10. A multi-spectral imaging system comprising a multi-spectral radiation detector according to any of claims 1-9.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of X-ray imaging devices, in particular to a multi-energy-spectrum ray detector and a multi-energy-spectrum imaging system.

Background

The energy spectrum CT imaging technology can provide more image information than the conventional CT by utilizing different absorptions of substances generated by X-rays with different energies, not only can acquire the density and distribution images of the substances, but also can acquire energy spectrum images, and can calculate the effective atomic coefficient and the electron density of pathological changes or tissues on the basis of the energy spectrum CT imaging technology, thereby realizing specific tissue identification and having great application potential in the aspects of substance identification, bone density measurement and the like.

When the multi-energy spectrum imaging equipment in the related technology carries out energy spectrum imaging, the most common method is to use a double-layer energy spectrum detector for distinguishing energy, a conventional CT scanning scheme is adopted, low-energy rays and high-energy rays are respectively collected by an upper layer detector and a lower layer detector for energy collection, and then related energy spectrum calculation is carried out; in addition, a photon counting detector is commonly used, energy gating threshold values are set to divide energy spectrum channels, accumulated counting is respectively carried out on photon numbers in different energy spectrum regions, and more comprehensive energy spectrum information about different materials is obtained to further realize substance identification. However, the above two methods change the internal structure or semiconductor material of the detector, and have high implementation cost and complex structure.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, the present invention is directed to overcome the defects that the internal structure or semiconductor material of the detector is changed, the implementation cost is high, and the structure is complex in the related art in the multi-energy spectrum imaging system, so as to provide a multi-energy spectrum ray detector and a multi-energy spectrum imaging system.

The invention provides a multi-energy spectrum ray detector, comprising: the detector body is provided with a ray receiving end; the ray filtering mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body, at least two filtering units are arranged on the ray filtering mechanism in parallel, and rays separated from the same ray by different filtering units have different energies; the area array detection mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body and is positioned on the inner side of the ray filtering mechanism, a plurality of crystal units are arranged on the area array detection mechanism in parallel, the crystal units and the filtering units of the ray filtering mechanism are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence mode, and the crystal units are used for receiving rays with different energies, which are separated by the filtering units.

Optionally, the radiation filtering mechanism comprises: the substrate is of a frame structure, and the filtering unit is arranged in the frame of the substrate.

Optionally, the plurality of filtering units on the substrate are alternately arranged in sequence along the transverse direction and/or the longitudinal direction.

Optionally, the filter units are square or circular, and a plurality of filter units are alternately arranged on the substrate in sequence along the transverse direction and the longitudinal direction.

Optionally, the filter units are rectangular, and the plurality of filter units are alternately arranged on the substrate in sequence along the transverse direction or the longitudinal direction.

Optionally, at least one of the plurality of filter units is a cavity structure.

Optionally, the filter unit array is a single-layer structure on the substrate.

Optionally, a frame of the substrate has a grid hollow structure, and the grid hollow structure is used for respectively connecting the plurality of filtering units.

Optionally, the shape of the crystal unit is the same as the shape of the filter unit; the area of the crystal unit is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit.

The invention also provides a multi-energy spectrum imaging system which comprises the multi-energy spectrum ray detector.

The technical scheme of the invention has the following advantages:

the invention provides a multi-energy spectrum ray detector which is provided with an area array detection mechanism, ray receiving ends and a ray filtering mechanism arranged between the area array detection mechanism and the ray receiving ends. When the multi-energy spectrum imaging system performs dual-energy or multi-energy imaging, a scanning image of a target position on a scanned object can be obtained by one-time scanning, so that the detection efficiency is improved, and the harm of radiation to a patient is reduced; in addition, the internal structure or the semiconductor material of the detector does not need to be changed, and the realization cost is low.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a multi-spectral radiation detector provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-spectral radiation detector provided in yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filtering mechanism provided in one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating data obtained for two different energies of radiation using the radiation filtering mechanism of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of processing the data of FIG. 5 using binning;

FIG. 8 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filtering mechanism provided in yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating data for four different energy rays obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10;

FIG. 14 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of processing the data of FIG. 14 using binning;

FIG. 16 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 15;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural view of a radiation filtering mechanism provided in yet another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-energy spectrum imaging system provided in an embodiment of the invention.

Description of reference numerals:

1-a ray filtering mechanism; 2-a first filtering unit; 3-a second filtering unit;

4-a third filtering unit; 5-fourth filtering unit.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it should be understood that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc., indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.

In addition, the technical features involved in the different embodiments of the present invention described below may be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a multi-spectral radiation detector provided in an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-spectral radiation detector provided in yet another embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the present invention provides a multi-energy spectrum ray detector, including: the detector body is provided with a ray receiving end; the ray filtering mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body and is provided with at least two filtering units which are arranged in parallel, and rays separated from the same ray by different filtering units have different energies; the area array detection mechanism is arranged at a ray receiving end of the detector body and located on the inner side of the ray filtering mechanism 1, a plurality of crystal units are arranged in parallel on the area array detection mechanism, the crystal units are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the filtering units of the ray filtering mechanism, and the crystal units are used for receiving rays with different energies, which are separated by the filtering units.

For example, as shown in fig. 1, the radiation filtering mechanism 1 may be packaged inside a multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, and after entering the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, the radiation is separated into radiation with different energies, and then reaches the crystal unit of the area array detection mechanism.

For example, as shown in fig. 2, the radiation filter mechanism 1 may be adhered to the outer surface of the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, and before entering the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, the radiation is separated into the radiation with different energy, and then reaches the crystal unit of the area array detection mechanism.

The invention provides a multi-energy spectrum ray detector which is provided with an area array detection mechanism, a ray receiving end and a ray filtering mechanism arranged between the area array detection mechanism and the ray receiving end. When the multi-energy spectrum imaging system performs dual-energy or multi-energy imaging, a scanning image of a target position on a scanned object can be obtained by one-time scanning, so that the detection efficiency is improved, and the harm of radiation to a patient is reduced; in addition, the internal structure or the semiconductor material of the detector does not need to be changed, and the realization cost is low.

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filtering mechanism provided in one embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 3, the present invention provides a radiation filter mechanism 1, comprising: the substrate is of a frame structure, at least two filter units are arranged in the frame of the substrate in parallel, and the rays separated from the same ray by different filter units have different energies.

Specifically, the filter units on the radiation filter mechanism 1 may be sequentially and alternately arranged in a checkerboard manner along the transverse and longitudinal directions of the substrate. For example, the filter units on the radiation filter mechanism 1 may be alternately arranged in parallel strips along the transverse or longitudinal direction of the substrate. Wherein, the filtering unit can be square or round.

For example, different filter units may correspond to a filter material with a transmission capacity, and the filter material may be aluminum, copper, or air. For example, the thickness of the same filter material may be varied to vary its transmissivity.

For example, at least one of the plurality of filter units has a cavity structure, for example, a through hole may be formed in the substrate to form a hollow area, the filter unit at the position is air, and after the radiation directly passes through the filter unit, the energy is not attenuated.

For example, the filter unit has a single-layer structure on the substrate. For example, the base of the radiation filter mechanism 1 may be a grid-shaped frame with a plurality of hollow structures, and filter materials with different transmission capacities are embedded or pasted in each grid to form different filter units. For example, one of the filter materials may be aluminum, which is denoted as the first filter unit 2; another filter material, which may be copper, is denoted as the second filter unit 3. The filter materials embedded in the grid are not limited to two, four or nine, and different filter materials are embedded at different positions according to requirements.

For example, the grid on the substrate may have a size of 64 × 64, that is, 64 grid regions are arranged along the length direction of the substrate and 64 grid regions are arranged along the width direction of the substrate. Wherein half of the grid areas in each row are the first filter units 2, half of the grid areas are the second filter units 3, half of the grid areas in each column are the first filter units 2, and half of the grid areas are the second filter units 3.

For example, the radiation filter mechanism 1 may further include a bottom plate, the substrate is disposed on a surface of the bottom plate, the bottom plate may be used for being bonded or welded on the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, and a thickness of the bottom plate may be set to be smaller so as to reduce energy attenuation when the X-ray passes through. For example, the bottom plate may be made of a thin aluminum plate.

In another embodiment, the shape of the crystal unit on the area array detection mechanism is the same as the shape of the filter unit on the ray filter mechanism 1.

In another embodiment, the area of the crystal unit on the area array detection mechanism is smaller than or equal to the area of the filter unit on the ray filter mechanism 1.

For example, when the area of the filter unit is the same as the area of the crystal unit, one crystal unit may correspond to one filter unit. For example, when the area of the filter unit is larger than the size of the crystal unit, one filter unit may correspond to a plurality of crystal units. When the array type crystal unit is used, the filtering unit on the substrate can be aligned with the crystal unit on the area array detection mechanism, and the imaging effect is favorably improved.

When a ray passes through the ray filter mechanism 1, the first filter unit 2 and the second filter unit 3 have different transmission capacities for the X-ray, for example, the first filter unit 2 has a higher transmission rate for the X-ray than the second filter unit 3, and the X-ray is converted into a high-energy X-ray and a low-energy X-ray after passing through the ray filter mechanism 1.

FIG. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-energy spectral imaging system provided in one embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 18, for example, for the entire multi-energy spectral generating system, it has a ray generator for emitting X-rays required for scanning; the multi-energy spectrum ray detector is also provided and is used for receiving X rays; and the calculation unit is used for receiving the rays detected by the multi-energy spectrum ray detector and analyzing data.

For example, the spectral imaging system may be a cone-beam CT scanning system or a direct digital radiography system.

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating data obtained for two different energies of radiation using the radiation filtering mechanism of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 4; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of processing the data of FIG. 5 using binning; FIG. 8 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 7; wherein "a" in the various figures represents data acquired by rays of one energy, "B" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy, "C" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy, and "D" represents data acquired by rays of yet another energy. I.e., A, B, C and D, respectively, each correspond to data acquired by a ray of one energy.

As shown in fig. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, for example, in one scan, the ray generator uses a high voltage, for example, 140KV, after the X-ray passes through the scanned object, it passes through the filtering units with different transmission capabilities, and then it is split into different high and low energy rays, which are received by the multi-energy spectrum ray detector, which then transmits the data to the computing unit, and finally, the energy spectrum image for the same scanned object can be generated. The calculation unit can extract data, and two groups of projection images of high-energy data and low-energy data aiming at the same object can be obtained through reconstruction, so that projection acquisition of dual-energy CT imaging is realized. For example, in one embodiment, the data with the "x" sign is completely supplemented by interpolation to obtain two groups of data with the same number as the original number of samples, and then the high-energy data and the low-energy data are obtained by pixel combination, and the number of samples is reduced to 1/2. And finally, utilizing CT reconstruction to obtain linear attenuation coefficients of the scanned object under two energies, then selecting different base materials to carry out base material decomposition calculation on the detected object, and further obtaining an atomic number image and an electron density image to realize the identification of specific tissues.

The multi-energy-spectrum imaging system provided by the invention is provided with a multi-energy-spectrum ray detector, and can separate the ray with single energy into the rays with different energies, when the multi-energy-spectrum imaging system is used, the ray generator emits X rays, the X rays pass through an object to be detected and are filtered by the ray filtering mechanism 1, the X rays pass through the first filtering unit 2 and the second filtering unit 3 and are divided into two rays with different high and low energies, the two rays with different high and low energies are received by the area array detection mechanism, and finally, a high-energy CT image and a low-energy CT image aiming at the same object to be detected can be generated. The multi-energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy CT imaging through one-time scanning, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the harm of radiation to patients, does not need to change the crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing processes in the existing detector, and is favorable for reducing the production cost.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filtering mechanism provided in yet another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating data for four different energy rays obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10; FIG. 12 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10; FIG. 13 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 10; FIG. 14 is a further schematic illustration of interpolation processing of data obtained using the ray filtering mechanism of FIG. 13; FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of processing the data of FIG. 14 using binning; FIG. 16 is a graph showing the results of the processing of FIG. 15; as shown in fig. 9, fig. 10, fig. 11, fig. 12, fig. 13, fig. 14, fig. 15 and fig. 16, in another embodiment, the radiation filter mechanism 1 includes a first filter unit 2, a second filter unit 3, a third filter unit 4 and a fourth filter unit 5; the first filtering unit 2, the second filtering unit 3, the third filtering unit 4 and the fourth filtering unit 5 are alternately arranged along the counterclockwise direction or the clockwise direction. The four grid areas are a small whole, and the distribution positions of the first filtering unit 2, the second filtering unit 3, the third filtering unit 4 and the fourth filtering unit 5 in the small whole can be designed as required, which is not limited herein. The use mode of the ray filtering mechanism 1 with four filtering units is the same as that of the ray filtering mechanism 1 with two filtering units, and is not described herein again.

Fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a radiation filter mechanism 1 according to still another embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 17, for example, the multi-energy spectrum imaging system may be a panoramic CT scanning system or a direct digital radiography system.

In this embodiment, both the two filter units are strip-shaped structures, which are respectively denoted as a first filter unit 2 and a second filter unit 3, and the first filter unit 2 and the second filter unit 3 are disposed on the substrate along the transverse direction.

For example, the size of the radiation filter mechanism 1 may be designed to be larger, when the radiation filter mechanism 1 is used, the emitted radiation passes through the scanned object, then passes through the first filter unit 2 and may be a high-energy radiation, and passes through the second filter unit 3 and may be a low-energy radiation, and the two kinds of radiation are received by the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector, and the multi-energy spectrum radiation detector feeds back the received radiation data to the computing unit of the multi-energy spectrum imaging system, so that the high-energy image and the low-energy image can be finally generated. And the ray generator can be rotated to scan and image different positions of the scanned object. In conclusion, the multi-energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy or even multi-energy imaging by scanning once, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the damage of radiation to patients, does not need to change the internal crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing processes of the existing detector, and is favorable for reducing the cost.

In conclusion, the multi-energy spectrum imaging system can realize dual-energy or even multi-energy imaging by scanning once, improves the detection efficiency, reduces the damage of radiation to patients, does not need to change the internal crystal structure, materials and related manufacturing processes of the existing detector, and is favorable for reducing the cost.

It should be understood that the above examples are only for clarity of illustration and are not intended to limit the embodiments. Other variations and modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art in light of the above description. And are neither required nor exhaustive of all embodiments. And obvious variations or modifications therefrom are within the scope of the invention.