USE OF EGS4 FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A SILICON DETECTOR FOR X-RAY DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY

The general-purpose EGS4 code has been used to evaluate the efficiency, the energy and the spatial resolution of a silicon crystal with double-side microstrips readout to detect X-rays in the diagnostic energy range (10-100 keV). A single crystal configuration, a sandwich arrangement with a high-Z converter foil in between two crystals and a multicrystal configuration have been investigated. The simulation with a low energy spectrum X-ray beam and a breast phantom has shown that this type of detector would be of valuable use in mammography applications: breast calcification with a diameter smaller than 500-mu-m can be easily identified.