Online calibration of a linear micro tomosynthesis scanner

TL;DR

This paper introduces an online calibration method for a linear micro tomosynthesis scanner that uses a marker layer of micro glass beads or calcium particles to correct for stage movement errors, improving image quality.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel online calibration technique using a marker layer to accurately determine stage trajectory in micro tomosynthesis imaging.

Findings

Effective calibration with marker layer reduces image artifacts.

Method compensates for stage instability exceeding system resolution.

Calibration process is simple and adaptable to existing scanners.

Abstract

In a linear tomosynthesis scanner designed for imaging histologic samples of several centimeter size at 10 micrometer resolution, the mechanical instability of the scanning stage (+/-10 micrometers) exceeded the resolution of the image system, making it necessary to determine the trajectory of the stage for each scan to avoid blurring and artifacts in the images that would arise from the errors in the geometric information used in 3D reconstruction. We present a method for online calibration by attaching a layer of randomly dispersed micro glass beads or calcium particles to the bottom of the sample stage. The marker layer was easy to produce and proven effective in the calibration procedure.