General Electric Company

Ge Precision Healthcare LLC

Yannick Louvrier

Philippe Ernest

Christophe Robert

Antonio Caiafa

Dominique Poincloux

Denis Perrillat-Amede

Nicolas Levilly

Elie Herve

Stephane Gautrais

Julien Nicolle

Loic Cabrol

Jean Luc Josse

Systems are provided for a medical imaging system. In one example, an electronic assembly configured to control a cathode of an X-ray tube of the medical imaging system comprises a plurality of boards comprising a first analog board, a first digital board, a second power board, and a third power board, and at least two Faraday cages nested within one another, the at least two Faraday cages comprising an inner Faraday cage surrounding the first digital board and an outer Faraday cage surrounding each of the plurality of boards and the inner Faraday cage.

Cathode supply assembly

Methods and systems are provided for controlling an electron beam generated by an X-ray tube assembly including a unipolar cathode with a long cable between driving electronics of the cathode and the X-ray tube. A voltage supplied to a gridding electrode of the cathode is controlled by a multi-stage switching unit including a first control circuit and a second control circuit. A bias voltage for switching the cathode on is generated by a high precision voltage source of the second control circuit, and a gridding voltage for switching the cathode off is generated by voltage sources of the first control circuit. A time taken to transition between the gridding voltage and the bias voltage is advantageously reduced by decreasing the supplied voltage to a common voltage (e.g., 0 V) in a first step, and then increasing the supplied voltage to the bias voltage or the gridding voltage in a second step.

Remote control of cathode width voltage

A system for protecting a transformer is provided. The system includes an inductor electrically disposed between the transformer and a load powered by the transformer, and a resistor electrically disposed in parallel with the inductor between the transformer and the load.

System and method for protecting a transformer

A system for compensating for a back emission current in an X-ray generator is provided. The system includes a transformer, a common, and a voltage source. The transformer is operative to provide power to an electron emitter of the X-ray generator. The common is electrically coupled to an anode of the X-ray generator. The anode is operative to receive electrons emitted by the electron emitter such that the back emission current is generated between the common and the electron emitter. The voltage source electrically couples the common to the transformer and is operative to generate an offset voltage that reduces the back emission current.

System and method for compensating for back emission current in an X-ray generator

A high voltage connector is provided. The high voltage connector includes multiple electrical conductors, and at least one autotransformer. The high voltage connector is configured to couple a high voltage cable to an X-ray tube.

X-ray tube high voltage connector with integrated heating transformer

In an X-ray generator an X-ray tube includes an anode and a cathode and is energized with at least a first high voltage potential. A dynamic damper with a frequency dependent impedance is interposed between the X-ray tube and a source of the high voltage potential. The impedance of the dynamic damper increases with an increase in frequency associated with tube-spit. In an X-ray generator with resonant switching to provide a first kV level and a second kV level to the X-ray tube, the impedance of the dynamic damper is low at the operational frequency of the resonant switch to promote energy recovery when the resonant switch operates to provide a first kV level to the X-ray tube.

Dynamic damper in an X-ray system

An interleaved double boost converter including two simple boost converters each having a diode, an input inductor, a switch connected to the anode of the diode and a filter capacitor connected to the cathode of the diode, the two switches and the two filter capacitors being connected at a mid-point, the interleaved double boost converter further including a control circuit controlling the switches adapted to control: at a first phase, the opening of a first switch the other remaining closed, both switches initially being closed; at a second phase, the opening of the second switch which had remained closed; and at a third phase, the closing of both switches.

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Buc, France

Yannick Louvrier