Light stimulating and collecting methods and apparatus for storage-phosphor image plates

An integrated x-ray image capture and readout system, comprising:

• a cassette enclosure having a form factor corresponding to a standard radiographic film cassette, the form factor corresponding to a thickness of the cassette enclosure of about 0.6 inches;
• a storage-phosphor plate operable to capture incident x-rays corresponding to an image;
• a stimulating light source operable to expose a first portion of a surface of the storage-phosphor plate to stimulating light;
• an array of detectors positioned to receive stimulated light via a second portion of the surface of the storage-phosphor plate adjacent the first portion of the surface, the stimulated light being released from the storage-phosphor plate in response to a portion of the stimulating light diffused under the second portion of the surface of the storage-phosphor plate;
• and
• an actuator assembly operable to effect relative motion between the surface of the storage-phosphor plate and both the stimulating light source and the array of detectors in one dimension;
• wherein the array of detectors are positioned in sufficiently close proximity to the surface of the storage-phosphor plate such that the storage-phosphor plate, the stimulating light source, the array of detectors, and the actuator assembly are enclosed in the cassette enclosure.