Deflection-equipped ct system with non-rectangular detector cells

Abstract

A CT system is constructed to have diagonally oriented perimeter walls of its detector cells. A CT detector comprised of such detector cells has improved spatial coverage (spatial density) and is better equipped for operation with focal spot deflecting x-ray sources. The number of detector channels is also not increased despite the increase in spatial coverage. Moreover, the detector cells can be constructed without much variance from conventional fabrication techniques.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 11 / 379,407, filed on Apr. 20, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to CT imaging systems and, more particularly, to a CT detector with non-rectangular detector cells and to imaging systems and methodologies employing such detectors.[0003]In conventional multi-row CT detectors, a two dimensional array of detector cells extend in both the x and z directions. Moreover, in conventional detectors, each cell of the array is constructed to have a rectangular-shaped active area. This active area is generally perpendicular to a plane of x-ray source rotation and, in the context of energy integrating scintillators, converts x-rays to light. The light emitted by each scintillator is sensed by a respective photodiode and converted to an electrical signal. The amplitude of the electrica...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention is about a new CT detector that solves problems with previous detectors. The detector has cells with diagonally oriented perimeter walls, which improves its ability to detect deflected focal spot x-rays. The detector can be constructed using a conventional cutting technique. The invention also includes a method for improving the detection of x-rays by using a scintillator array with multiple detector cells and a data acquisition system that can acquire a matrix of data samples with additional values in the row direction. The method also integrates other data values to increase the apparent sampling resolution in the slice direction or the subject direction. The technical effects of the invention are improved spatial coverage and more effective detection of x-rays."

Problems solved by technology

Segmenting the detector active area into smaller cells increases the Nyquist frequency but with the added expense of data channels and system bandwidth.

Moreover, system DQE is degraded due to reduced quantum efficiency and increased electronic noise which results in a degradation in image quality.

Moreover, present detectors are not particularly optimized for receiving deflected x-ray beams.

However, such a staggered design is difficult to fabricate since all the rows are not aligned.

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