Patent · US Expired

X-ray inspection system

US6122344A · kind A · utility

44Cited by
4References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 20, 1997
Grant dateSep 19, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 20, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01N23/207
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An X-ray inspection system comprises an X-ray source (1) disposed to irradiate an object to be inspected (4) with a beam of X-rays in the form of a fan project from the source (1) through the object (4), detection means (6) capable of discriminating between the intensitities of X-rays coherently scattered through the object (4) at different angles to produce an output signal dependent on the intensity of the X-rays scattered through each of those angles and analyzing means (not shown) operably connected to the detention means (6) to process the output signal to determine the presence of X-rays coherently scattered through one or more pre-determined angles. Collimination means (23) is provided between the detection means (6) and the object (4) and is adapted to pass only X-rays coherently scattered at the different angles from a limited voxel (volume element) depth central at point P. Movement at the collimator (23) along the direction of the beam together with translation of the object by e.g. a conveyor (5) in the direction (22) allows the whole volume of the object, such as an item of baggage, to be scanned.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.