Radiation Sensor Array Reset Control and Line Interpolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Radiation imaging apparatuses face challenges in separating dark current signals from image signals, leading to image quality deterioration due to uneven offsets caused by varying dark currents across pixels, and existing methods for dark current extraction during radiation irradiation result in loss of image signals.
Innovation Solution
A radiation imaging apparatus with a control unit to manage reset operations and read signals from a sensor array, identifying lines subjected to reset or read operations, and using interpolation to reconstruct images from adjacent lines, allowing for synchronized dark current extraction and image capture without losing image data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If dark current extraction is performed during radiation irradiation, then dark current can be extracted continuously, but image signals are lost due to inability to separate them from dark current
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor array is divided into multiple scan lines that are processed sequentially. The control unit identifies which specific line is being reset and uses interpolation to reconstruct image data only for that affected line, rather than losing entire frame data. This segmentation allows selective recovery of image information.
Solution Approach 2:
Image data for the line undergoing reset operation is copied/reconstructed from adjacent lines through interpolation. The interpolation unit creates a substitute image signal for the affected line by combining data from neighboring lines, effectively copying the visual information from similar regions.
2Reliability
If reset operation is performed sequentially on multiple lines, then dark current can be extracted from each line, but image quality deteriorates due to uneven offsets from varying dark currents
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the timing parameters of reset operations across different lines, staggering them sequentially rather than simultaneously. This temporal parameter change allows the interpolation unit to reconstruct missing data from adjacent lines captured at slightly different times, compensating for the sequential nature of reset operations.
3Reliability
If synchronization mechanism is implemented between apparatus and radiation source, then exclusive control of dark current extraction and radiation irradiation is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses its own internal resources (adjacent scan lines and interpolation algorithms) to recover image data lost during reset operations, rather than requiring external synchronization with the radiation source. The apparatus serves itself by reconstructing missing line data from neighboring lines that were captured during the same exposure period.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively suppresses image quality deterioration by ensuring accurate dark current extraction and image signal capture, improving user-friendliness and eliminating the need for precise synchronization with radiation sources.
Implementation Method 1
a photoelectric conversion element which converts radiation into an electrical signal
Implementation Method 2
the conversion element of each pixel detects visible light converted from radiation by a phosphor
Data Source
AI summary
User-friendliness of a radiation imaging apparatus configured to reset a sensor array is improved. This invention is a radiation imaging apparatus including a two-dimensional sensor array. This apparatus includes a scan control signal generation circuit which controls the reset operation of the two-dimensional sensor array, a row number register which stores the row number of a line currently subjected to the reset operation at the time of detection of radiation irradiation, a scan control signal generation circuit which controls read operation after the completion of the radiation irradiation, and an image processing circuit which interpolates an image, of the image generated based on the signals read by the read operation, which corresponds to a line corresponding to the row number stored in the row number register, by using images of adjacent lines.