DQE(f) of four generations of computed radiography acquisition devices

Measurements were made of the MTF(f), NPS(f), and DQE(f) of four generations of computed radiography (CR) imaging plates and three generations of CR image readers. The MTF generally showed only a minor change between generations of plates and readers, but the DQE(f) has improved substantially from a very early plate/reader combination to a more recent one. The DQE in the more recent plate/reader combination is 1.3X greater at low frequencies and about 3X greater at high frequencies than the much earlier versions. Thus there has been substantial improvement in the imaging performance obtainable with CR since some of the early observer studies which indicated poorer performance with CR than with screen-film.