Light stimulating and collecting methods and apparatus for storage-phosphor image plates
OwnerMichel Sayaginventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus are described for retrieving information from a storage medium. A first portion of the surface of the storage medium is exposed to stimulating light which diffuses in the storage medium under a second portion of the surface adjacent the first portion. The second portion of the surface is shielded from exposure to the stimulating light. Stimulated light corresponding to the information is received with at least one detector positioned to receive the stimulated light via the second portion of the surface of the storage medium. The stimulated light is released from the storage medium in response to the stimulating light diffused under the second portion of the surface.
Claims22
An integrated x-ray image capture and readout system, comprising:
- a cassette enclosure having a form factor corresponding to a standard radiographic film cassette;
- a storage-phosphor plate operable to capture incident x-rays corresponding to an image;
- a stimulating light source operable to expose a surface of the storage-phosphor plate to stimulating light;
- an array of detectors positioned to receive stimulated light via the surface of the storage-phosphor plate, the stimulated light being released from the storage-phosphor plate in response to the stimulating light;
- and
- an actuator assembly operable to effect relative motion between the surface of the storage-phosphor plate and each of the stimulating light source and the array of detectors in one dimension;
- wherein the storage-phosphor plate, the stimulating light source, the array of detectors, and the actuator assembly are enclosed in the cassette enclosure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.