Breast cancer calcification measurements using direct X-ray detection in a monolithic silicon pixel detector

A prototype monolithic silicon pixel detector, developed for high-precision tracking at the Superconducting Super Collider, has been used to measure, by direct detection of X-rays, aluminum oxide grains from an accreditation phantom, and calcifications from a tissue sample including a calcification with a width of 100 /spl mu/m (about half the diameter of the smallest ones normally seen in clinical practice). A computer model indicates that a future sensor, using the same basic structure but optimized for mammography, has the potential of improving upon the abilities of scintillator-film and scintillator-CCD systems by observing individual X-rays, thus allowing the possibility of combining high resolution digital information from more than one viewing angle or X-ray energy.>