Comparison of beam quality parameters computed from mammographic x-ray spectra measured with different high-resolution semiconductor detectors

In this work, the x-ray spectra of standard mammographic radiation qualities were measured with Si(Li), SDD and CdTe detectors. The x-ray source was an industrial x-ray tube with an Mo anode, operating at constant tube potentials between 20 and 35 kV, and adapted with filters of Mo and Al, in order to reproduce standard mammographic beam qualities. The measured spectra were corrected by the energy response of each detector, which were determined using Monte Carlo simulation. From the corrected spectra, values of HVL and mean energies were computed. The results show that, after correction by the energy response functions, all detectors provided similar bremsstrahlung spectra, whereas greater differences were observed in the characteristic peaks, due to the different energy resolutions of the detection systems. The comparison between values of HVL and mean energies calculated from the spectra obtained with each detector also show good agreement, with differences up to 5.5%. For most of the conditions studied, the differences between the measured values of HVL and those computed from the corrected spectra are lesser than the experimental uncertainties. Finally, our results show that, although the detectors Si(Li), SDD and CdTe provide similar spectra, the use of the first two detectors, which combine high energy resolution and low spectral distortions, is recommended, since they provide more accurate spectra from which several quality parameters can be determined.