Apparatus and method for X-ray fluorescence imaging

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging use a radiation source to stimulate XRF from only a slice of an object by projecting a radiation beam through only the slice. An X-ray detector having a plurality of pixels is provided. A collimator having a plurality of parallel collimator plates is positioned between the object and the X-ray detector. The radiation beam is not parallel to the collimator plates. Neighboring pairs of the collimator plates allow XRF from only respective portions of the slice to reach respective subsets of the pixels. For each of the respective pixel subsets the X-ray detector sums signals generated in the pixel or pixels of the respective subset. The radiation beam is a fan beam or a pencil beam. A pixel pitch of the X-ray detector is an integer multiple of a plate pitch of the collimator.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.