Low-Dose Dual KVP Switching Using A Static Coded Aperture

This paper introduces a single-scan dual-energy coded aperture computed tomography system that enables material characterization at a reduced exposure level. Rapid kVp switching with a single-static block/unblock coded aperture relies on coded illumination with a plurality of X-ray spectra created by the kVp switching. Based on the tensor representation of the projection data, an algorithm to estimate the missing measurements in the tensor is proposed. This results in a full set of synthesized measurements that can be used with filtered back-projection or iterative reconstruction algorithms to accurately reconstruct the object in each energy channel. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed cost-effective solution to attain material characterization in low-dose dual-energy CT.