Development and performance evaluation of cost-effective micro-CT

We have developed a cost-effective micro- tomography (micro-CT) system. The system consists of an X-ray source with small focus spot, an object (or subject) jig, and an X-ray imaging detector. A computer-controlled rotation system was adopted in the object jig to achieve a cone-beam mode scan. The core of the system is an X-ray imaging detector. Since imaging performance of the detector is mostly responsible for the resultant image quality and eventually determines the quality of a tomogram, characterization of the imaging performance of the detector is an important issue for optimizing the design of the imaging system. We have evaluated the imaging characteristics of the detector in terms of modulation-transfer function (MTF), noise-power spectrum (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). Tomographic imaging performances of the system, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) have also been evaluated by using various quantitative phantoms. The details of experimental results will be discussed with the system´s own limitations.