• Filters (thin layers of different metals) can be mounted on the X-ray source in order to narrow the spectrum of the X-rays. An Al-filter can be mounted in front of the detector to reduce the detection of scattered photons.
• A high precision rotation table “UPR-160F air” from Micos mounted on a XYZ-stage made of three linear stages “LS-270” from Micos.
• The XYZ stage “LS-270” allows a positioning with a bidirectional repeatability of ± 2.5 μm and the rotation table “UPR-160F air” can rotate a load up to 5 kg with an accuracy of 0.05 μrad.
• The digital X-Ray detector is a “XRD 1621 CN3 ES” from Perkin Elmer, based on a 16'' amorphous silicon sensor operating as a two-dimensional photodiode array. X-Rays are converted into light using CsI (Tl) Scintillator, on which needles are directly deposited on the aSi photodiode. It has a a pixel size / pitch of 0.2 x 0.2mm2 and an image size of 2048 x 2048 pixels, resulting in a sensitive area of 409.6 x 409.6mm Transmission information is digitized in 16bit data range.

Currently available additional setups

• Differential phase contrast setup (limited field of view)
• Oven for heating examinations with radiographic time series
• Mini climatic chamber for temperature and humidity control.

Processing

The acquisition of the CT data is controlled by an in-house Labview©-software with an integration time of less than a second per projection. The projected images are corrected for pixel errors, offset and pixel gain (with the help of a dark and flat image). The 3D tomograms are reconstructed using GPU based, flexible in-house software tools which allow for optimal parameter settings for different materials. The reconstructed data-sets are finally processed and assessed by trained scientists to guarantee an optimal image quality.