摘要:
A toroidal x-ray tube (I) is supported (II) for rotation about a horizontal axis (170), translation along a vertical axis (172), and translation along a horizontal axis (174). The x-ray tube includes a toroidal housing (A), an annular anode (B), and a cathode (0) which rotates a beam of electrons around the annular anode. A plurality of parallel connected voltage sources (90.sub.1, 90.sub.2, . . . , 90.sub.n) provide a sufficiently high bias voltage between the electron source and the anode that x-rays are generated. The x-ray beam passes through a compensator crystal (62), an annular window (20), a collimator (132), through a subject received in a central bore (26) of the x-ray tube, and impacts an arc segment of radiation detectors (130). The x-ray detectors are stationarily mounted outside of the plane of the annular window (FIGS. 2 and 7), nutate into the plane of the windows opposite of the origin of the x-ray beam (FIG. 6 ), rotate in part (FIG. 9 ) or rotate in full (FIG. 8 ) Angular position monitors (58, 154) determine the angular position of the cathode assembly, hence the x-ray beam, and the angular position of the detectors in the rotating detector embodiment.
摘要:
An x-ray tube includes an anode (A) and an envelope (C). A cathode assembly (B) which is supported in the envelope on a bearing (32) emits a beam of electrons which strike the anode forming a focal spot. The anode rotates (D) relative to the cathode such that focal spot follows a generally annular path along a beveled track (14). If the axis of the anode and the cathode assembly are screwed or offset, the focal spot path is not circular and wobbles. An adjustment assembly (60) adjusts the relative positions of the anode, the cathode and the envelope to adjust the anode and cathode assembly axes. The adjustment assembly also includes one or more electrodes (102, 108) which adjust the position of the focal spot. An angular position encoder (106) identifies an angular orientation of the anode. A control circuit (110) applies an electrostatic potential to the electrodes to move the focal spot such that it stays on a constant plane of the leveled anode surface.
摘要:
A toroidal x-ray tube housing (A) is composed of multiple sections which are clamped together and sealed by elastomeric gaskets (128). An annular anode (B) is mounted to the housing with coolant passages (12, 14) extending thereadjacent. A rotor (30) is rotated within the toroidal housing by a motor (60). At least one cathode assembly (C) is mounted to the rotor adjacent the anode. The rotor is supported by magnetic bearings (40) whose active coils are separated from the vacuum region by a magnetic window (48). Alternately, a series of vanes (136, 138) are provided to divide the vacuum chamber into a high vacuum region (132) adjacent the cathode and anode and a low vacuum region (134) adjacent the motor (60) and bearings (40, 150, 152) for rotatably supporting the rotor within the housing. An active vacuum pump, preferably a ion pump (112) and a getter (114) are hermetically sealed into the vacuum region for maintaining the vacuum.
摘要:
An x-ray tube includes an anode (A) and envelope (C) which are rotated (D) at a relatively high rate of speed. A cathode assembly (B) is supported in the envelope on a bearing (32). In order to hold the cathode assembly stationary, a magnetic susceptor (40) having periodic projections (44) is disposed with the projections closely adjacent an outer peripheral wall (20) of the envelope. A plurality of permanent magnets (52) are mounted on a stationary keeper (50), each magnet adjacent one of the susceptor projections. Preferably, the magnets have alternating polarity such that magnetic flux lines (54) flow between adjacent magnets through the magnetic susceptor.
摘要:
An evacuated envelope (C) which is connected with an anode (A), has a cathode assembly (B) rotatably mounted inside. Magnets (44, 46) hold the cathode assembly stationary as the anode and envelope rotate. A ferrite core transformer (60) includes a ferrite core primary (66) stationarily mounted exterior to the envelope. A secondary (64) is mounted to the cathode assembly interior to the envelope. The secondary winding includes a ferrite core (70), a portion of which is surrounded by a ceramic, dielectric bobbin (76). The bobbin includes walls or ridges (78) which define a spiral groove (80) therearound in which an uninsulated electric wire (82) is received. The uninsulated electric wire is connected with a cathode filament (52). The primary winding has a ferrite core (90) that has about five times the cross section as the secondary ferrite core to compensate for a low, about 20%, coupling efficiency between the primary and secondary windings. Preferably, the primary winding core tapers (94) adjacent its pole faces to focus magnetic flux toward pole faces (72, 74) of the secondary ferrite core.
摘要:
A toroidal x-ray tube housing (A) has an evacuated interior. An annular anode (B) is connected with the housing closely adjacent the window such that a cooling fluid passage (12) is defined in intimate thermal communication with the anode. A cathode assembly (32) is mounted within the evacuated housing or an annular ring (30) that rotates an electron beam (22) around the large diameter annular anode. In the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the annular ring is magnetically levitated (40) and rotated by a motor (50). A collimator (62) and filter (64) are rotated with the cathode assembly closely adjacent an electron emitter or cathode cup (32) such that the generated x-rays are collimated and filtered within the x-ray tube. Preferably, a plurality of cathode cups (120) are provided, whose operation is selected by a series of magnetically controlled switches (76). The cathode cup is insulated (106) from the annular ring and isolated by a transformer (104, 112) from the filament current control switches. In the embodiment of FIGS. 4-6, the cathode assembly (C) includes a multiplicity of stationarily mounted electron cups (120) which are selectively actuated to rotate the electrode beam by a switch (130). An electron beam scan control (134) may bias the potential applied to grids (124, 126) to scan the electron beam generated by electron emitter over a commensurate arc length of the anode with the arc length of the emitter. In the embodiment of FIG. 7 , multiple anode surface as well as multiple cathode cups are provided.
摘要:
The invention relates to a rotor comprising a radiation source having a focal spot for radiating beam towards a subject, detection means for generating signals responsive to energy attenuation of said beam and a circular body having a cavity for housing the radiation source, and a circle arc-shaped surface on which the detection means are mounted. The circle arc-shaped surface is placed opposite to the cavity with respect to the subject, said cavity comprising an inside surface mounted with a shield for shielding the radiation not towards the subject. In this way, the conventional housing for radiation source and shielding are removed, resulting in reduction of focal spot motion caused by motion of the conventional housing. Furthermore, this invention proposes to mount the detection means directly on the circular body without an intermediate structural housing that reduces the detector modules motion relative to the focal spot.
摘要:
By providing a pair of vacuum manifolds positioned on opposite sides of an envelope travel path with the vacuum manifolds being laterally spaced apart, a unique, effective and dependable envelope handling system is achieved whereby the envelope sides are consistently separated and the contents removed therefrom and positioned in a readily accessible channel. Preferably, the envelope handling system also incorporates sensing devices for automatically and separately inspecting each side of the envelope to determine the presence of additional material which should be processed. In this way, any such material is automatically discovered for handling by the operator.
摘要:
By providing a pair of vacuum manifolds positioned on opposite sides of an envelope travel path with the vacuum manifolds being laterally spaced apart, a unique, effective and dependable envelope handling system is achieved whereby the envelope sides are consistently separated and the contents removed therefrom and positioned in a readily accessible channel. Preferably, the envelope handling system also incorporates a sensor for automatically and separately inspecting each side of the envelope to determine the presence of additional material which should be processed. In this way, any such material is automatically discovered for handling by the operator.
摘要:
A high frequency voltage generator (10) produces a high positive voltage and a high negative voltage. A parallel connected coil (26) and diode (30) are connected between the high voltage supply and a target (44) of an x-ray tube (40). A second parallel connected coil (28) and diode (32) are connected between the negative voltage and an electron source (42) of the x-ray tube. The coils are preferably a multiple pancake design (FIG. 3 ). When the tube starts to arc, the sudden increase in current flow through the coil is converted and stored in a magnetic field leaving only a small current to contribute to arcing. The coils are sized such that the current which passes to the x-ray tube is sufficiently small that the arcing is usually extinguished without an avalanche phenomenon occurring. The diodes permit the energy stored in the magnetic field to be converted into a current flow through the coil and diode such that the energy is dissipated as heat by the inherent electrical resistance of the coil with only a minimal amount of the energy passing over time to the x-ray tube.