Active Pixel Sensor (APS) Testbed
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) is an important figure of merit in focal plane array sensors, especially for accurate target positions such as star trackers.
A continuous-time shift-invariant cellular neural network (CNN) with hardware annealing
Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) based star trackes provide reliable attitude estimation onboard most 3 axis stabilized spacecraft. The spacecraft attitude is calculated based on observed positions of stars, which are located and identified in a CCD image of the sky.
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Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanner using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) offers improved imaging capability over conventional NaI (Tl)-based SPECT scanner. We aim to demonstrate a full-ring SPECT system design with eight large-area CZT detectors that can be used for a broad spectrum of SPECT radiopharmaceuticals and provides higher sensitivity and better spatial resolution than those of conventional NaI (Tl)-based gamma cameras. A newly-designed full-ring SPECT system is composed of 8 large-area CZT cameras (128 mm × 179.2 mm effective area) that can be independently swiveled around their own axes of rotation independently and can have radial motion for varying aperture sizes that can be adapted to different sizes of imaging volume. Extended projection data were generated by conjoining projections of two adjacent detectors to overcome the limited field-of-view (FOV) by each CZT camera. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we evaluated this new system design with digital phantoms including a Derenzo hot-rod phantom and a Zubal brain phantom. Comparison of performance metrics such as spatial resolution, sensitivity, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and contrast-recovery ratio were made between our design and a conventional SPECT scanner. The proposed scanner could result in up to about 3 times faster in acquisition time over conventional scan time at same acquisition time per step. The spatial resolution of our proposed scanner was similar or better to that of the conventional scanner, and there was significant performance improvement over the conventional scanner particularly in sensitivity (approximately 4 times). Overall, we successfully reconstructed the phantom image for both 99 mTc-based perfusion and 123 I-based dopamine transporter (DaT) brain studies simulated for our new design. In particular, the striatal/background contrast-recovery ratio in 3-to-1 reference ratio was over the 0.8 for the 123 I-based DaT study. In conclusion, we demonstrated the potential of our new full-ring CZT SPECT design, showing improved performance metrics such as improved system sensitivity and CNR while maintaining other important imaging parameters such as spatial resolution.
This paper delves into the realm of laser engraving of photographs on wooden surfaces and explores the diferences between mathematical and human perception. A comprehensive quality study was conducted to explore the results achieved by 27 diferent realizations. The evaluation process involves both objective analyses and subjective assessments from hundreds of ratings of 60 evaluators, with the aim of unravelling the intricate interplay between technology and visual perception. The study also poses the intriguing question of whether the image most accurately transferred onto a wooden surface is also the most favourably perceived by potential customers and what are their preferences for laser engraved products.
We designed and fabricated a photon-number-resolving detector based on an iridium (Ir) transition-edge sensors (TES) with small timing jitter time for coherent optical communication. The current–voltage relationship of the small Ir-TES, with an effective area of 7 μm × 7 μm, was measured, and its electrothermal feedback operation was confirmed. This device had a transition temperature of 280 mK, which is higher than that of bulk Ir, because of the wide contact area.