Improved Spatial Resolution in Segmented Silicon Strip Detectors

Abstract: Semiconductor detectors are attracting interest for use in photon-counting spectral computed tomography. In order to obtain a high spatial resolution, it is of interest to find the photon interaction position. In this work we investigate if machine learning can be used to obtain a sub-pixel spatial resolution in a photon-counting silicon strip detector with pixels of 10 µm. Simulated charge distributions from events in one, three, and seven positions in each of three pixels were investigated using the MATLAB® Classification Learner application to determine the correct interaction position. Different machine learning models were trained and tested in order to maximize performance. With pulses originating from one and seven positions within each pixel, the model was able to find the originating pixel with an accuracy of 100% and 88.9% respectively. Further, the correct position within a pixel was found with an accuracy of 54.0% and 29.4% using three and seven positions per pixel respectively. These results show the possibility of improving the spatial resolution with machine learning.