Patent ID: 7613274

Claim:
A diagnostic imaging system comprising: an x-ray source that emits a beam of x-ray energy toward an object to be imaged; an energy discriminating (ED) detector that receives the x-ray energy emitted by the x-ray energy source, wherein the ED detector comprises: a first layer having a first thickness, wherein the first layer comprises a semiconductor configurable to operate in at least an integrating mode, further wherein the first layer comprises a material having a low atomic number; and a second layer having a second thickness greater than the first thickness, and configured to receive x-rays that pass through the first layer; and a data acquisition system (DAS) operably connected to the ED detector; and a computer operably connected to the DAS, wherein the computer is programmed to: identify saturated data in the second layer; and substitute the saturated data with non-saturated data from a corresponding pixel in the first layer.