AcceleraDesign and optimisation of ultra-compact, high-resolution X-ray imaging systems
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Monte Carlo methods have shown their potential for the realistic reproduction of medical X-ray images using human phantoms. In this project, we are using this potential to study the detailed behaviour of a novel X-ray imaging system.
The system is a 3D imaging system developed by Adaptix Ltd and has 45 individual X-ray sources, arranged in a rectangular grid. The positions of the emitters offer 45 different projection angles of the radiation, i.e. 45 different images which can then be combined mathematically to create a 3D reconstruction of the object, a method called digital tomosynthesis.
The radiation output, dose and resulting image quality are all investigated using the Monte Carlo codes FLUKA and Geant4. The system is then optimised with regards to reducing the dose delivered to the patient and environment, improving image quality and increasing the efficiency of the X-ray source design. This end-to-end simulation framework allows the optimisation to be focused either on a specific component of the system or on a more general level, thus offering both, tailored and overall improvement capabilities.
In addition, both Monte Carlo codes are used to implement various types of imaging phantoms, including realistic human phantoms, to simulate quality tests that are routinely done in the laboratory. As a result, the simulation results can be benchmarked against experimental data and against each other. Once validated, the models can be used to simulate a range of experimental conditions and perform virtual measurements that are at least very difficult, if not impossible, to conduct experimentally.
Finally, Monte Carlo methods are used to investigate designs concept to reduce the footprint of the system and make it lighter, targeting a compact and mobile X-ray imaging system. This work helps reduce resources and experimental costs and thus contributes to an overall reduction in product cost. All work is realized in close collaboration with Adaptix, where an extended secondment was also realized.
The system is a 3D imaging system developed by Adaptix Ltd and has 45 individual X-ray sources, arranged in a rectangular grid. The positions of the emitters offer 45 different projection angles of the radiation, i.e. 45 different images which can then be combined mathematically to create a 3D reconstruction of the object, a method called digital tomosynthesis.
The radiation output, dose and resulting image quality are all investigated using the Monte Carlo codes FLUKA and Geant4. The system is then optimised with regards to reducing the dose delivered to the patient and environment, improving image quality and increasing the efficiency of the X-ray source design. This end-to-end simulation framework allows the optimisation to be focused either on a specific component of the system or on a more general level, thus offering both, tailored and overall improvement capabilities.
In addition, both Monte Carlo codes are used to implement various types of imaging phantoms, including realistic human phantoms, to simulate quality tests that are routinely done in the laboratory. As a result, the simulation results can be benchmarked against experimental data and against each other. Once validated, the models can be used to simulate a range of experimental conditions and perform virtual measurements that are at least very difficult, if not impossible, to conduct experimentally.
Finally, Monte Carlo methods are used to investigate designs concept to reduce the footprint of the system and make it lighter, targeting a compact and mobile X-ray imaging system. This work helps reduce resources and experimental costs and thus contributes to an overall reduction in product cost. All work is realized in close collaboration with Adaptix, where an extended secondment was also realized.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Carsten Welsch (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Thomas Primidis (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/R002142/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2022 | |||
| 2030016 | Studentship | ST/R002142/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2021 | Thomas Primidis |
| Title | Diversity in the QUASAR group video |
| Description | A YouTube video showing the multiple nationalities involved in the QUASAR group, the accelerator science group of the University of Liverpool. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | Science has no cultural, national or gender preference and this motivates people of all backgrounds to pursue a career in science. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avkgyXE9K9c |
| Title | FCC Expanding our Horizons video |
| Description | Subtitling the YouTube video FCC Expanding our Horizons in Greek. This video gives an overview of the many fascinating challenges that are being tackled by the FCC collaboration. The FCC Study, is an international collaboration of more than 130 institutes from all over the world. The continuously growing FCC collaboration is open to universities, scientific institutes and high-tech companies. Besides opening up new frontiers in physics research and technology advancement, the study focuses on the social and economic benefits of large accelerator research infrastructures. Fundamental science helps us to address some of the socio-economic challenges of the 21st century and shapes the future of our society. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | Highlighting the importance of international collaboration to audiences of multiple languages. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvq8vF5LKzM&t=4s |
| Title | Subtitling the Science knows no Borders - EuroCirCol video |
| Description | Added Greek subtitles to the video that highlights the importance of international research collaboration on the example of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) project. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | Highlighting the importance of international research collaboration to audiences of multiple languages. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pPAcrLUGX0&t=14s |
| Description | The 3D X-ray system that is investigated is comprised of 45 X-ray systems housed in one compact unit. Manufacturing errors can lead to not all of the 45 subsystems working as expected. I have seen that such scenarios cause a degradation to the 3D image quality and that different patterns of failure cause either significant or negligible effects. |
| Exploitation Route | These findings and their more technical details describe the robustness of the machine. This can be used by the company to tailor the manufacturing procedure to optimise machine yield at the factory and machine reliability. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Electronics Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Security and Diplomacy |
| Description | Industrial collaboration with Adaptix Ltd |
| Organisation | Adaptix Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I provide Monte Carlo simulations of the 3D X-ray system that the company is doing research and development on. Experiments and tests that are impossible or that have financial and technical challenges are much easier done in simulations therefore I offer a higher R&D momentum to the company. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The company gave me an insight of the questions they would like to answer and why are these important to them and their future clients. They disclosed the technical details of their novel system so that I could replicate it in simulations and discussed with me the reason why such designs have been used. I realised a 6 month secondment at their site in Oxford and this gave me the chance to work in their environment, follow and participate in their daily procedures and of course get a more hand on experience with the machine I am studying. |
| Impact | Several poster presentations in national and international events are the so far outcomes. This collaboration is by its nature multi-disciplinary with my part being the computational methods and the company offering the image analysis and system's engineering expertise and the radiation experimental results among other things. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | STFC Wonder Match |
| Organisation | Bolton Council of Mosques |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration's goal is to increase the science awareness of communities in the United Kingdom that are of low science capital. The community we are aiming for is the Muslim community of Bolton, Manchester and the collaboration will have the form of small science events and talks. My contribution will be the preparation and presentation of the material during the events. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Bolton Council of Mosques will prepare the venue for the talks and will invite the community to attend. The University of the West of England, is the host institution of the National Co-coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). NCCPE was awarded funding by STFC to organise meetings between academia and communities to facilitate collaborations among them. This collaboration was built during one of these meetings. |
| Impact | There was a £600 award given to us to prepare our idea. This collaboration is not multi-disciplinary. There are no outputs or outcomes yet because the collaboration has only recently started. There is however already a positive attitude from all partners and the people they represent towards delivering these events. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | STFC Wonder Match |
| Organisation | University of the West of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration's goal is to increase the science awareness of communities in the United Kingdom that are of low science capital. The community we are aiming for is the Muslim community of Bolton, Manchester and the collaboration will have the form of small science events and talks. My contribution will be the preparation and presentation of the material during the events. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Bolton Council of Mosques will prepare the venue for the talks and will invite the community to attend. The University of the West of England, is the host institution of the National Co-coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). NCCPE was awarded funding by STFC to organise meetings between academia and communities to facilitate collaborations among them. This collaboration was built during one of these meetings. |
| Impact | There was a £600 award given to us to prepare our idea. This collaboration is not multi-disciplinary. There are no outputs or outcomes yet because the collaboration has only recently started. There is however already a positive attitude from all partners and the people they represent towards delivering these events. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Institute of Physics Three minute Wonder |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Three Minute Wonder is our UK and Ireland-wide science communication competition. It challenges researchers or project team members to explain their work to the public in just three minutes. Participants work in physics or physics-related fields in academia and industry. Participants pitch their original research to a panel of judges and a non-specialist audience. The aim is to bring cutting edge physics-related research to life for the general public. The competition involves a series of regional or national heats, depending on location. Participants can use one slide, one video and as many props as necessary to publicise their work. Each contestant is scored by a panel of established science communicators. The winner from each national or regional heat goes through to the Grand Final. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://beta.iop.org/3mw |
| Description | MCNEG 2020 conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This meeting provides a forum for new and experienced users of Monte Carlo software for radiation transport. We would like to extend our invitation to presenters including academics, researchers and students from the fields of medical, radiation dosimetry, radiation detectors, reactor, space, shielding modelling, and related fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.mcneg.org.uk/MCNEG2020.html |
| Description | OMA School on Monte Carlo Simulations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Monte Carlo simulations find widespread applications in all areas of modern research. They allow simulation of beam losses in high energy accelerators, studies into traffic flow in cities, as well as optimization of treatment planning in cancer therapy. This School will cover the fundamentals of Monte Carlo simulations, including geometry definition, material assignment, analysis, dose calculations, an overview of different solvers and post processors, as well as data visualization tools. Participants will be familiarized with this areas on the specific example of the FLUKA code through lectures and hands-on training classes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/656336/overview |
| Description | OMA Workshop on Medical Accelerator Design & Diagnostics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The workshop will discuss the efficient integration of beam imaging and diagnostics devices into medical facilities, beam lines and gantries. The 2-day event will focus on current R&D challenges related to diagnostics and how advances in beam monitoring can help design better treatment facilities. Each scientific sessions will be introduced by an overview talk discussing the current state-of-the-art. Contributed talks by other workshop participants will complement the program. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/744722/overview |
| Description | Particle Colliders, Accelerating Innovation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Particle colliders - very large 'atom smashers' - such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are used to improve our understanding of the fundamental building blocks and forces that make up our universe. They have also proven to drive technology progress and enabled numerous applications in health, security and energy. The EuroCirCol and Future Circular Collider (FCC) projects investigate options for a future highest energy collider. The University of Liverpool and CERN, together with partners from the FCC/EuroCirCol projects, hosted a Symposium to showcase the science and technology challenges on 22 March 2019. The aim of this special event was to explore the opportunities for co-innovation between a variety of industries including energy, health, security, transport, IT, communications, and civil engineering, as well as cryogenics, detectors and accelerator technology. The Symposium was a fantastic public display of the FCC project and took place at the prestigious Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre near the famous Albert Dock. The event featured talks by keynote speakers that are now available to watch offline, an industry exhibition, as well as hands-on activities for the general public. The Symposium was accompanied by an Industry Innovation Workshop in the afternoon of the 22 March 2019. The workshop focused on the strategic R&D programme of FCC, including the technological innovations envisaged within the project, and the benefits for industry in terms of project involvement and product commercialization. Working groups around each of the relevant industry sectors were formed to discuss specific opportunities for co-innovation and funding. Slides of all afternoon talks are available via this link. This event was an ideal opportunity to get involved in one of the largest scientific and technological endeavours of the 21st century. A large cohort of physics undergraduate students also attend the Symposium, offering the participating companies the chance to meet prospective recruits and giving the students unique insight into career opportunities after graduation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/747618/ |
| Description | Physics of Star wars |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Several schools but also groups of professionals and university students were given the opportunity to see what is fact and what is fiction in the Star Wars universe. The research done by the physics department of the University of Liverpool and its collaborators across the globe was linked to the technology and science of the movies. Through presentations, demonstrations and games the audience saw how what was science fiction back in the days of the first movies is slowly becoming reality nowadays. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/quasar/news/stories/title,1007434,en.php |
| Description | Physics of Star wars |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Several schools but also groups of professionals and university students were given the opportunity to see what is fact and what is fiction in the Star Wars universe. The research done by the physics department of the University of Liverpool and its collaborators across the globe was linked to the technology and science of the movies. Through presentations, demonstrations and games the audience saw how what was science fiction back in the days of the first movies is slowly becoming reality nowadays. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/quasar/news/stories/title,1180382,en.php |
| Description | Physics of Star wars |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Students and staff from the Cockcroft Institute were given the opportunity to see what is fact and what is fiction in the Star Wars universe. The research done by the physics department of the University of Liverpool and its collaborators across the globe was linked to the technology and science of the movies. Through presentations, demonstrations and games the audience saw how what was science fiction back in the days of the first movies is slowly becoming reality nowadays. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/quasar/news/stories/title,1081998,en.php |
| Description | STEM for BRITAIN 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | STEM for BRITAIN exists to raise the profile of Britain's early-stage researchers at Westminster by engaging Members of both Houses of Parliament with current science, engineering and mathematics research being undertaken in the UK, especially that by their local constituents and in their local University. Few of them have science or technology degrees, but we usually have around 100 Parliamentarians attending during the day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.setforbritain.org.uk/index.asp |
| Description | The Cockcroft Institute Postgraduate Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The 8th annual Cockcroft Institute Postgraduate Conference (CIPGC) was held on 30th October 2019 at the Merrison Lecture Theatre of Daresbury Laboratory. It attracted 45 postgraduates and academics from all four CI Universities (Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester and Strathclyde) and ASTeC. CI Director, Prof. Peter Ratoff gave an opening speech. He welcomed the participants for this event and stressed the importance of presentations. It was followed by the introduction of the CI postgraduate training program by Dr. Hywel Owen, the Head of CI Education and Training. Dr. Guoxing Xia, the organiser of this event gave a brief introduction about the event arrangement and the panel members. It was then followed by 10 presentations covering a wide variety of research activities going on in the Institute. A judging committee made up of academics from the CI partners marked each presentation based on their presentation style, technical content, research context and question handling. The CI Postgraduate Conference is an important annual event for all CI postgraduates and it provides a platform for them to network and present research results to their peers and experienced academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/archives/6073 |
| Description | The Cockcroft Institute Postgraduate Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 24th October 2018 saw the 7th annual CI Postgraduate Conference, which was held in our own Merrison Lecture Theatre on the Daresbury Science and Technology Campus. 36 of our postgraduates and academics attended from all four of the Cockcroft universities (Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester and Strathclyde) and from the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC). Peter Ratoff - our director - gave an opening speech welcoming the participants and highlighting the importance of effective presentations for career development in academia and beyond; Dr Andrew Vick then talked about the role of ASTeC has in supporting the development of Cockcroft researchers. For the rest of the day, 15 of our current postgraduates gave presentations covering the wide variety of research activities going on in the institute. A judging committee made up of our academics and staff researchers marked each presentation based on their presentation style, technical contents, research context and question handling; the overall quality of the presentations was very high as Peter Ratoff mentioned in his closing remarks. Our Postgraduate Conference is an important annual event for all our postgraduates and it provides a platform for them to network and present research results to their peers and to more experienced academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/archives/5560 |