System and methods for multi-beam inspection of cargo in relative motion
AssigneeAmerican Science and Engineering, Inc.
InventorsAnatoli Arodzero, Martin Rommel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
X-ray inspection of moving cargo based on acquiring multiple image lines at one time or substantially at one time. An X-ray source with multiple-beam electron beam targets creates multiple parallel X-ray fan beams. X-ray inspection systems and methods employ such multiple-beam sources for purposes of inspecting fast moving cargo.
Claims9
A cargo inspection system employing a plurality of concurrent fan beams of penetrating radiation, for inspecting cargo in motion relative to the cargo inspection system, the cargo inspection system comprising:
- a. a single source of a pulsed beam of accelerated electrons;
- b. a plurality of Bremsstrahlung targets for emitting penetrating radiation upon impingement by a spatial entirety of the pulsed beam during each of a plurality of pulses of the accelerated electrons;
- c. a plurality of collimators for forming the emitted penetrating radiation into a plurality of substantially parallel fan beams;
- d. a plurality of linear detector arrays, each linear detector array for receiving penetrating radiation transmitted through the cargo in a corresponding fan beam of the plurality of fan beams;
- and
- e. a processor for deriving a material characteristic of the cargo for each of a plurality of lines of sight through the cargo.
A method for deriving a specified characteristic of an inspected object, the method comprising:
- a. generating, during a single pulse of accelerated electrons, a plurality of concurrent substantially parallel x-ray beams, by directing an entire electron beam onto a succession of Bremsstrahlung targets;
- b. concurrently irradiating the object with the plurality of concurrent substantially parallel fan beams of penetrating radiation;
- c. detecting the penetrating radiation after traversal of the inspected object with a plurality of linear detector arrays, thereby generating a detector signal;
- and
- d. processing the detector signal to derive the specified characteristic of the inspected object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.