General Electric Company

Elscint Ltd.

Ge Medical Systems Israel, Ltd

Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

Jerome Stephen Arenson

David Ruimi

Oded Meirav

Robert Harry Armstrong

Lev Greenberg

David Michael Hoffman

John Eric Tkaczyk

Yanfeng Du

Reuven Levinson

Evgeny Drapkin

Daniel Rubin

Baruch Rosner

Samit Kumar Basu

James Wilson Rose

Xiaoye Wu

William Edward Burdick, Jr

David A Freundlich

Bruno K B De Man

Galit Naveh

Shalom Rosenberg

Dmitry Samsonov

Haim E Gelman

Eliahu Kritchman

Ofer Pinhasi

A system and apparatus for classifying x-ray energy into discrete levels include an imaging system comprising an x-ray source, a detector, and a DAS having a discriminator assembly configured to count photon hits in the detector. A computer causes the discriminator assembly to count photon hits in the detector having an energy level greater than or equal to first and second threshold levels during an imaging scan, wherein the second threshold level is distinct from the first threshold level. The computer further modifies the counted photon hits having an energy level greater than or equal to the first threshold level based on the counted photon hits having an energy level greater than or equal to the second threshold level and reconstructs an image based on the modified photon hits and based on the counted photon hits having an energy level greater than or equal to a second threshold level.

System and apparatus for classifying x-ray energy into discrete levels

An imaging system includes an x-ray source, a detector that receives x-rays emitted from the x-ray source, a DAS configured to count photon hits in the detector that occur at photon energies above at least a low keV threshold, a medium keV threshold, and a high keV threshold, and a computer operably coupled to the DAS. The computer is programmed to vary each of the medium keV threshold and the high keV threshold over a continuous keV range during data acquisition to define low, medium, and high keV bins that are based on the low, medium, and high keV thresholds, obtain photon counts in the low, medium, and high keV bins in a plurality of keV threshold combinations, calculate a noise variance as a function of at least one of the keV thresholds, and identify a noise minimum and low, medium, and high keV thresholds that correspond thereto.

Photon counting and energy discriminating detector threshold calibration

The invention is directed to an x-ray flux management device that adaptively attenuates an x-ray beam to limit the incident flux reaching a subject and radiographic detectors in potentially high-flux areas while not affecting the incident flux and detector measurements in low-flux regions. While the invention is particularly well-suited for CT, the invention is also applicable with other x-ray imaging systems. In addition to reducing the required detector system dynamic range, the present invention provides an added advantage of reducing radiation dose.

X-ray flux management device

Methods and systems for controlling an X-ray imaging system. The method for controlling an X-ray imaging system includes acquiring a plurality of subviews of patient attenuation data wherein a first set of subviews of patient attenuation data is acquired at a first radiation flux level and a second set of subviews of patient attenuation data is acquired at a second radiation flux level. The first radiation flux level is different than the second radiation flux level. The method further includes combining the first set of subviews of patient attenuation data and the second set of subviews of patient attenuation data to form corrected views for subsequent image generation.

Method and system for controlling an X-ray imaging system

The present invention is a directed method and apparatus for collimating a radiation beam such that the full intensity of the radiation beam does not impinge detectors of a radiation detector assembly that are particularly susceptible to saturation or over-ranging. This collimation can be dynamically adjusted on a per view basis using empirical or scout scan data.

Apparatus for acquisition of CT data with penumbra attenuation calibration

An adaptive CT data acquisition system and technique is presented whereby radiation emitted for CT data acquisition is dynamically controlled to limit exposure to those detectors of a CT detector assembly that may be particularly susceptible to saturation during a given data acquisition. The data acquisition technique recognizes that for a given subject size and position that pre-subject filtering and collimating of a radiation beam may be insufficient to completely prevent detector saturation. Therefore, the present invention includes implementation of a number of CT data correction techniques for correcting otherwise unusable data of a saturated CT detector. These data correction techniques include a nearest neighbor correction, off-centered phantom correction, off-centered synthetic data correction, scout data correction, planar radiogram correction, and a number of others. The invention is applicable with energy discriminating CT systems as well as with conventional CT systems and other multi-energy CT systems, such as dual kVp-based systems.

Method and system of CT data correction

A method and system of counting and tagging radiation energy received by a radiation detector is presented. The method and system are designed to dynamically control the sampling window or shaping time characteristics of a photon counting detector to accommodate variations of flux experienced by the detector so as to preserve optimum detector performance and prevent saturation during high flux conditions.

Method and system of dynamically controlling shaping time of a photon counting energy-sensitive radiation detector to accommodate variations in incident radiation flux levels

An interconnect structure for use in an electronic device, wherein the interconnect structure comprises a first substrate comprising a flexible material, wherein the first substrate comprises a front side and a back side, and wherein the first substrate is configured to receive a sensor on the front side; and a second substrate coupled to the back side of the first substrate and comprising a rigid material. A detector module for use in an imaging system comprises the aforementioned interconnect structure.

Electronic packaging and method of making the same

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Haifa, Israel

Jerome Stephen Arenson