Device for providing a high energy x-ray beam

A device to deliver an X-ray beam at energies greater than 4 keV, comprising:

• an X-ray source (10) comprising an electron gun (111) adapted to generate a continuous beam of electrons onto a target region (121) of an anode (12) for X-ray emission by the anode (12), wherein
• said anode (12) forms a solid of revolution of a diameter between 100 and 250 millimetres, and is fixedly connected to a motor shaft (16) so that it is driven in rotation by a rotation system (15), and
• the electron gun (111) and the anode (12) are arranged in a vacuum chamber (13), said chamber (13) comprising an exit window (14) to transmit an X-ray beam emitted by the anode (12) outside of the chamber (13),
• conditioning means (20) to condition the X-ray beam emitted through the exit window, the conditioning means comprising an X-ray optic (20) adapted to condition the X-ray beam emitted with a two-dimensional optic effect,
• wherein:
• the electron gun (111) is designed to emit an electron beam of a power less than 400 watts, and comprises means (112) to focus said electron beam on the target region (121) in a substantially elongate shape defined by a small dimension (v) and a large dimension (W), wherein the small dimension (v) is comprised between 10 and 30 micrometres and the large dimension (W) is 3 to 20 times greater than the small dimension (v),
• the rotating anode (12) comprises an emission cooling system (124) to evacuate, by radiation, part of the energy transmitted by the electron beam to the anode,
• the rotation system (15) comprises a motor with magnetic bearings designed to set the rotating anode (12) in rotation at a speed of more than 20,000 rpm, and
• the exit window (14) is arranged so as to transmit an X-ray beam emitted by the anode (12) so that the X-ray beam emitted towards the conditioning means (20) is defined by a substantially point-size focal spot of dimension substantially corresponding to the small dimension (v) of the shape of the target region.