Method and apparatus for utilizing an electro-optic detector in a microtomography system

An apparatus for producing tomographic images of an object mounted with respect to a rotation axis, said object irradiated by a beam of plane parallel collimated x-ray radiation transmitted in a plurality of rays through a set of coplanar sections of said object as viewed from a plurality of angles about said rotation axis comprising:

• (a) an imaging two-dimensional electro-optic detector to simultaneously record the transmitted radiation from multiple stacked planes through said object irradiated by a beam of plane parallel collimated x-ray radiation wherein the electro-optic detector includes an energy converter, an electro-optic readout and a means for format alteration, said format alteration means being focused;
• (b) means to determine projection data from transmitted radiation with respect to one or more reference calibration exposures, wherein a projected image of said rotation axis is aligned on said readout, wherein said object is aligned with respect to said rotation axis, and wherein said electro-optic detector has a spatially uniform response and low signal dependent background;
• (c) means to determine a three-dimensional reconstructed image of attenuation coefficients of said object from said projection data.