X-ray imaging particularly adapted for low Z materials
US5313511A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 18, 1991 |
| Grant date | May 17, 1994 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 18, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG21K5/10
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An imaging device for increasing the ability to recognize, in x-ray produced images, materials of low atomic number. A flying spot scanner illuminates an object to be imaged in a raster pattern; the flying spot repeatedly sweeps a line in space, and the object to be imaged is moved so that the illuminating beam intersects the object. At least a pair of x-ray detectors are employed, each pair associated with signal processing apparatus and a display. The two detectors employed (and the associated electrons and display) are selected from a set of three which includes a transmitted detector located at the line in space which is repeatedly traversed by the pencil beam, a forward scatter detector which is located further from the x-ray beam than the object to respond to photons scattered by the object being illuminated out of the path of the beam, and a back scatter detector which is located closer to the x-ray source than the object being imaged and also arranged to detect photons scattered out of the beam path by the object. In another embodiment of the invention all three detectors and their associated electronics/displays are employed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.