The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 12, 2026
Filed:
Dec. 16, 2022
Koninklijke Philips N.v., Eindhoven, NL;
Hans Peter Sprong, Eindhoven, NL;
Koninklijke Philips N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The present invention relates to operating a filament of an X-ray tube. In order to provide X-ray tubes with improved wear out, a control device () for pulsed operation of a generator for an X-ray tube is provided. The X-ray tube may be controlled to provide a plurality of X-ray pulses, wherein two subsequent pulses are temporally separated by an emission pause. The emission pause comprises at least a first part and a second part. A filament current is provided to a cathode filament of the X-ray tube such that, in the emission pause between two subsequent pulses, during a first part of the pause a first filament current is provided and during a second part of the pause a second filament current is provided, the first filament current being lower than the second filament current. By operating the filament in this way, the filament temperature can be reduced, resulting in significantly less wear and longer lifetime of the X-ray tube.