© 2016 SPIE. Conventional performance analysis of detection systems confounds the effects of the system architecture (sources, detectors, system geometry, etc.) with the effects of the detection algorithm. Previously, we introduced an information-theoretic approach to this problem by formulating a performance metric, based on Cauchy-Schwarz mutual information, that is analogous to the channel capacity concept from communications engineering. In this work, we discuss the application of this metric to study novel screening systems based on x-ray scatter or phase. Our results show how effective use of this metric can impact design decisions for x-ray scatter and phase systems.