Electron emitter for multiple focal spot sizes

Abstract

An electron emitter according to one or more example embodiments for a rotary piston X-ray tube has a segmented emitter surface including at least two emitter elements which can be activated independently of each other and is set up to activate at least one subset of the segments of the segmented emitter surface as an activated emission surface for emitting electrons from the activated emission surface, wherein the at least two emitter elements are arranged in such a way that the segmented emitter surface is axially symmetrical in an emitter surface place, at least one emitter element of the at least two emitter elements is embodied for the thermionic emission of electrons, and the at least two emitter elements are arranged such that a distance between the respective emitter surfaces is minimal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.