General Electric Company

Aurelien Gadenne

Jean-Francois Larroux

Julien Bouhraoua

Uwe Wiedmann

Mark Alan Frontera

In the present invention, a high-voltage DC/DC converter suitable for powering x-ray tubes and the like provides control of a voltage applied to a resonant circuit at least in part according to a timing of a monitored voltage on the resonator thereby compensating for variations in the parameter stability of the resonant circuit, nonlinearity in the resonant gain curve and frequency dependencies.

High-performance DC/DC converter with resonator sensing

Rise times and fall times provided by a high voltage generator are controlled to maintain image quality during such scans. The rise and fall times are controlled by first measuring rise and fall times at each transition. Then, a closed-loop controller is used to adjust control parameters of the high voltage generator, based on an error determined from the measurement, to achieve substantially constant rise and fall times. This invention may be based on the implementation of two closed-loop controllers on rise and fall time of fast-kV exposures. As a result, image quality may be improved and system calibration time may be reduced.

Energy imaging with controlled rise and fall times

The present inventors have recognized that fall times between high-kV to low-kV levels (during a 'dual energy' or 'fast-kV' energy scan) are linked to the discharge of HV (high voltage) capacitance. In an embodiment of the invention, a high voltage generator may be activated during fall transitions from first to second energy levels in order to substantially maintain a predetermined fall transition time. Accordingly, substantially equal energy distributions between high-kV and low-kV levels may be achieved.

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Buc, France

Aurelien Gadenne