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US 2011/0255667 A1Published application
LOW BIAS mA MODULATION FOR X-RAY TUBES
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorSergio Lemaitre
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A segmented thermionic emitter is provided. The segmented thermionic emitter has, among other features, a plurality of segments substantially spanning an entire length of the thermionic emitter and aligned substantially parallel with one another. In one embodiment, the segmented thermionic emitter may allow milli-amp modulation of an X-ray tube at voltages less than approximately 2 kV.
Claims20
An imaging system, comprising:
- an X-ray tube configured to generate an X-ray beam at one or more energies, the X-ray tube comprising:
- a cathode assembly comprising a segmented thermionic emitter comprising a plurality of segments substantially spanning a length of the segmented thermionic emitter, wherein the segmented thermionic emitter is configured to emit one or more electron beams in a direction towards an anode to generate the X-ray beam;
- an X-ray detector configured to detect X-rays generated by the X-ray tube and generate a signal based on the detected X-rays;
- and
- data acquisition circuitry configured to convert the signal generated by the detector into one or more images of a subject of interest.
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A segmented thermionic emitter comprising:
- a plurality of emitter segments substantially spanning a length of the segmented thermionic emitter and aligned substantially parallel with one another.
An X-ray tube, comprising:
- a cathode assembly comprising:
- a segmented thermionic emitter having two to four segments substantially spanning a length of the segmented thermionic emitter and aligned substantially parallel with one another;
- and
- an anode;
- wherein the cathode assembly and the anode are capable of being placed at an electrical potential to create a voltage to extract electrons from a surface of the segmented thermionic emitter, and each segment is configured to emit one or more electron beams toward the anode.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.