Patent ID: 7177389
Filing Date: 2007-02-13
Classification: A61B,G01N

Abstract:
1. A device for tomographically imaging an object comprising: a compound refractive lens for x-rays having a focal length f and an aperture; an x-ray source, selected from the group consisting of an x-ray tube and a plasma x-ray source, which is oriented to direct x rays toward said compound refractive lens; an x-ray detector located at a distance i from said compound refractive lens and positioned to receive x rays from said compound refractive lens, said x-ray detector further comprising an output which emits data signals corresponding to the x-ray intensity pattern striking the detector; wherein the object is located at a distance o from said compound refractive lens and is illuminated by x-rays from said x-ray source that are directed toward said compound refractive lens; and wherein wherein the depth of field of the refractive lens is greater than or equal to the thickness of the volume of the object to be imaged; and wherein the x-rays emitted from the source are collimated to eliminate x-rays that do not pass through both the object and the refractive lens while maintaining sufficient divergence to fill 20% or more of the aperture of the refractive lens; a device that moves the object and an imaging train consisting of the x-ray source, refractive x-ray lens and detector relative to each other so that the object is imaged over a range of angles around an axis through the object perpendicular to the optical axis defined by the centers of the source, lens and detector; an image memory that combines said detector data signals from a range of positions to form an image database that contains information sufficient to form a cross-sectional image of a cutting plane of the object.