Fast kV-switching and dual-layer flat-panel detector enabled cone-beam CT joint spectral imaging

. Fast kV-switching (FKS) and dual-layer flat-panel detector (DL-FPD) technologies have been actively studied as promising dual-energy spectral imaging solutions for FPD-based cone-beam computed tomography (CT). However, cone-beam CT (CBCT) spectral imaging is known to face challenges in obtaining accurate and robust material discrimination performance. That is because the energy separation by either FKS or DL-FPD, alone, is still limited, along with apparently unpaired signal levels in the effective low- and high-energy projections in real applications, not to mention the x-ray scatter in cone-beam scan which will make the material decomposition almost impossible if no correction is applied. To further improve CBCT spectral imaging capability, this work aims to promote a source-detector joint multi-energy spectral imaging solution which takes advantages of both FKS and DL-FPD, and to conduct a feasibility study on the first tabletop CBCT system with the joint spectral imaging capability developed.