Detective Quantum Efficiency in the Image Domain

Abstract: We investigate the signal and noise transform characteristics from the projection domain to the image domain in a linear systems theory framework and predictions of the DQE within this framework are made. A simulation study of a photon counting silicon detector is made from which the energy information is used in order to produce synthetic monoenergetic images. From these images the MTF, NPS, and DQE are estimated and are compared to the respective quantities predicted from the model. Within this model we find that the DQE in the projection domain has similar global characteristics as in the image domain, and that the sampling step in the imaging chain affects the DQE close to the zero frequency.