X-Ray imaging - The Trophy Digipan 130mm x 300mm digital imaging plate - inside

[Fraser]

The Trophy Digipan digital imaging plate is used in dental CT X-Ray machines in place of a conventional film cassette.

It was designed for the Trophy OS500 and OS1000 machines and was a user upgrade option.

Trophy was bought by Kodak and its products are now part of the Carestream range. Sadly very little information is available for this imaging plate. There were some references to it having a USB interface and two imaging arrays in side-by-side configuration, but that was all that I could discover about it.

For those unaware, a dental CT X-Ray scanner rotates the X-Ray generator and imaging film around the patients head and at the same time it moves the imaging plate horizontally past a vertical aperture that exposes the plate in strips. In the pictures you will see that the Digipan plate has an IR linear encoder at its top edge. This tells the on board electronics that the plate is moving past the exposure aperture.

These Digipan plates cost around £10K new, but without the manufacturers download and configuration software they are very difficult to use. I bought this plate because it was 'as new' and cheap 

I can learn from it and I may even be able to extract and use the imaging arrays, if they are self contained assemblies like the USB Hamamatsu arrays. In order to learn more about the plate I X-Ray imaged it in my Faxitron MX-20. I had to do this in six exposures as the plate is too large for the MX-20 really. The left and right sides were exposed with the plate at a 30 degree angle in order to position the required area over the centrally positioned MX-20 120mm x 120mm imaging plate. To add to this challenge, these digital plates normally include an X-Ray attenuator behind the array to protect the electronics and reduce the level of X-Ray emerging from the rear of the plate. The MX-20 did its best with only 35kVp available to it, and I did obtain some images that I can at least use to better understand the plates construction before disassembly. The imaging array is transparent to the X-Ray energy due to its low density so it cannot be seen in these images.

I have yet to study the images but there appears to be plenty of electronics within this panel !

Fraser

[Fraser]

X-Ray images.....

I use the annotation as below in the image title.

TL = Top Left
BL = Bottom Left
TM = Top Middle
BM = Bottom middle
TR = Top Right
BR = Bottom Right.

The plate needs 6 images to capture its entire area.

First the TL & BL images....

Fraser

[Fraser]

TM & BM

[Fraser]

TR & BR

[Fraser]

Digipan Plug

This is the only hardwired connectivity on the unit so all communications and power are via this plug.

[Fraser]

In case anyone is wondering what the large block of plastic is on the cable side of the plate, it is just the hand hold and a couple of long magnets that hold the plate in place within the CT machine. It has no active components within it.

Fraser

[Fraser]

Having inspected the plates construction I can see that access into its innards is via removal of the large decorative label on the front.

I am loathed to tear into this plate if there is a way to avoid such. I try contacting Carestream support with an RFI and see if they are willing to help me in any way with drivers and/or pin-outs for this plate. Don't ask, don't get ! So no harm in asking eh ?

I will advise if/when I receive a response. I am not expecting much from that avenue of investigation though. The fact that it is an obsolete plate from 2004 does work in my favour though 

Fraser

[MindBender]

This guy seems to know more about it:
https://hackaday.io/project/62710-taking-digital-xray-shots-for-cheap-300
He even got some images out of it.