X-Ray Examination
with Minimum X-Ray Dosage
We desire to make an x-ray sensor which is gentle to patients and doctors. NAOMI's multi-CCD detector method made it possible. NAOMI balances high sensitivity and image resolution by the combination of multiple supersensitive monochrome TST-CCD sensors. This method was only achieved with RF's expertise in CCD technologies. Direct Digital Radiography CCD Imaging Sensor, NAOMI is opening up a new era in the history of radiography.
Super-Sensitive
Monochrome TST-CCD Sensor
Super-sensitive monochrome TST-CCD sensors for NAOMI are jointly developed with SHARP. They are specially designed to match with the spectral sensitivity characteristics of the NAOMI’s scintillator, therefore, they would not miss even a very small amount of light. To provide higher sensitivity and lower x-ray dosage, we adopted 270,000 pixel CCD sensor.
High sensitivity equals to the lower x-ray dose.
A highly sensitive digital camera can capture clear image on a night scene. It is because the light condensation rate is higher than others. To provide gentle x-ray examinations to doctors and their patients, it needs to reduce the amount of x-ray as much as possible. The mechanism of capturing a photo is fundamentally same for x-ray and camera. Super-sensitive monochrome TST-CCD sensor achieves to decrease the amount of x-ray.
A digital image is made from the smallest dot, “pixel”, that is drawn by PC. The grain is also the smallest unit for the CCD sensor which gathers light. How much light can each pixel catch? How effectively can the light transform into electric signals? Those are the key factors to produce the higher quality of the captured image. If the area of each pixel becomes bigger, the CCD sensor becomes highly sensitive because more light can be captured.
Multi-CCD Detector Method perfectly balances high sensitivity and high resolution.
Multi-CCD Detector Method is the combination of 12 CCD sensors into one unit and then multiple units are structured into single NAOMI sensor. It is the original technique of RF SYSTEM lab. One CCD sensor has only 270,000 pixels, but structuring multiple units made x-ray image with high resolution even with a small amount of x-ray. In case of 14”x 17” sized sensor, 192 CCD sensors are arrayed, and the image of super high resolution with 51.84 megapixels total can be captured.
*270,000 pixels x 192 (CCD sensor) = 51.84 megapixels (Number of active pixels: 48.37 megapixels)
Both of them are 100kvp 3mAs
The difference is very clear when comparing the images of film and NAOMI. The contrast of the film image is weak because it lacks x-ray amount and has lower sensitivity. On the other hand, NAOMI can capture vivid and clear images because of its high sensitivity.