Absorption and Phase-Contrast Microtomography Using Direct X-ray Detection With COTS CMOS Sensors

Abstract

This work presents a high-resolution X-ray microtomography system that uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) CMOS image sensors as direct detectors, relying on the sensor s intrinsic resolution to achieve tomographic reconstructions without optical components. The system employs a microfocus X-ray source in cone-beam geometry, enabling both absorption-contrast and propagation-based phase-contrast imaging. A dynamic flat-field correction algorithm mitigates radiation-induced degradation during long acquisitions, helping to overcome limitations of consumer-grade hardware. The setup provides voxel sizes from 3.9 micron to 5.2 micron. Phase contrast visualizes soft tissue boundaries that would be undetectable by conventional radiography. Compared to synchrotron or nanofocus systems, our solution is simpler, lower-cost, and avoids complex optics or slow scans. COTS CMOS sensors appear as a viable alternative for laboratory-scale high-resolution microtomography.