A digital detector for breast computed tomography at the SYRMEP beamline

A silicon strip detector in edge on configuration with a single photon counting read-out electronics was developed for the MATISSE (MAmmographic and Tomographic Imaging with Silicon detectors and Synchrotron radiation at Elettra) project. E is an experiment aiming at a pre-clinical phase of breast computed tomography examinations at the SYRMEP (SYnchrotron Radiation for MEdical Physics) beamline at the Elettra synchrotron light source in Trieste (Italy). chromatic beam in the energy range 8–35 keV is available at SYRMEP. TISSE detector is side illuminated, thus allowing direct conversion of X-rays with a high efficiency. The read-out electronics operates in single photon counting mode, maximizing the contrast resolution of the images. to the characteristics of the radiation spectrum and to the high efficiency of the detector, the dose delivered in a tomographic examination results comparable to the one delivered in planar conventional mammography. or prototypes have been assembled and tested with promising results that will be presented in this contribution.