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:
Dec. 12, 1995
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1994
Rodney A Mattson, Mentor, OH (US);
Theodore A Resnick, Beachwood, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
A toroidal x-ray tube (I) is supported and selectively positioned by a gantry (II). The x-ray tube includes a toroidal housing (A) in which a rotor (30) is rotatably mounted. One or more cathodes (C) are mounted on the rotor for generating an electron beam which strikes an anode (B) to generate a beam of x-rays which passes through a window (20) and strikes an annular ring of detectors (160). A grid bias control circuit (100) selectively applies a continuously adjustable bias to a grid (36) for regulating the electron current, hence the intensity of the x-ray beam. A scintillating optical fiber (110) extends around the exterior of the window. The scintillation optical fiber includes fluorescent dopant (116) which convert a very small fraction of the x-rays into optical light which is transmitted along the fibers to an opto-electric transducer (118). The opto-electric transducer is connected with the grid bias control circuit. The opto-electrical transducer (118) can also be connected with an intensity compensator (162) for adjusting the signals from the detector ring before they are reconstructed (164 ) into an image representation.