Patent ID: 7298882

Claim:
A method for quantifying image quality of an x-ray based medical projection imaging system, comprising the steps of: directing a beam of x-ray energy to a detector to produce an image; performing a deterministic calculation to determine an average probability for x-ray quanta being absorbed by an active layer of the detector; blurring the image in a frequency domain to produce a blurred image; performing a Fourier transform of the blurred image to produce a transformed blurred image; performing a stochastic simulation based on Monte Carlo track structure calculations for emitted x-ray quanta to determine energy deposition distribution during imaging; performing an analytical calculation as a linear cascaded model to determine influence of physical processes in the detector; calculating the spatial frequency dependent signal to noise ratio using output of said Fourier transform and said stochastic simulation and said analytical calculation according to the following: SNR ⁡ ( u , v ) =  H ⁡ ( v , v )  NPS 5 ⁡ ( u , v ) ; ⁢ and using a result of said calculating step to optimize an X-ray imaging system.