A curved crystal spectrometer for energy calibration and spectral characterization of mammographic x-ray sources

Clinical efficacy of diagnostic radiology for mammographic examinations is critically dependent on source characteristics, detection efficiency, image resolution and applied high voltage. In this report we focus on means for evaluation of source-dependent issues including noninvasive determination of the applied high voltage, and characterization of intrinsic spectral distributions which in turn reflect the effects of added filtration and target and window contamination. It is shown that a particular form of x-ray curved crystal spectrometry with electronic imaging can serve to determine all relevant parameters within the confines of a standard clinical exposure.