Conical Rotating Aperture Geometries In Digital Radiography

Applications of conical rotating aperture (RA) geometries to digital radiography are described. Two kinds of conical RA imaging systems are the conical scanning beam and the conical scanning grid assemblies. These assemblies comprise coaxial conical surface(s) the axis of which is collinear with the x-ray focal spot. This geometry allows accurate alignment and continuous focusing of the slits or the grid lines. Image receptors which use solid state photodiode arrays are described for each type of conical RA system: multiple linear arrays for the conical scanning beam assembly and multiple area arrays for the conical scanning grid assembly. The digital rotating-aperture systems combine the wide dynamic range characteristics of solid state detectors with the superior scatter-rejection advantages of scanned beam approaches. The high scanning-beam velocities attainable by the use of rotating apertures should make it possible to obtain digital images for those procedures such as chest radiography which require large fields of view and short exposure times.