摘要 |
A toroidal x-ray tube (I) is supported (II) for rotation about a horizontal axis (170), translation along a vertical axis (172), and translation along a horizontal axis (174). The x-ray tube includes a toroidal housing (A), an annular anode (B), and a cathode (C) which rotates a beam of electrons around the annular anode. A plurality of parallel connected voltage sources (901, 902, ..., 90n) provide a sufficiently high bias voltage between the electron source and the anode that x-rays are generated. The x-ray beam passes through a compensator crystal (62), an annular window (20), a collimator (132), through a subject received in a central bore (26) of the x-ray tube, and impacts an arc segment of radiation detectors (130). The x-ray detectors are stationarily mounted outside of the plane of the annular window (FIGURES 2 and 7), nutate into the plane of the windows opposite of the origin of the x-ray beam (FIGURE 6), rotate in part (FIGURE 9) or rotate in full (FIGURE 8). Angular position monitors (58, 154) determine the angular position of the cathode assembly, hence the x-ray beam, and the angular position of the detectors in the rotating detector embodiment. |