Patent ID: 6342699
Filing Date: 2002-01-29
Classification: A61B,G01T

Abstract:
High sensitivity radiation imaging system aimed at providing sections of the three dimensional density of an object emitting radiation comprising:(a) a detector sensitive to the position of the impinging radiation having an intrinsic spatial resolution, the said detector converting the position of impinging radiation into electrical signals, (b) a collimator having an entrance face directed towards the object to be imaged, and an exit face placed in front of the detector, (c) a means for holding the source of radiation to map and for moving the said collimator and the said detector in a scanning movement, this movement is defined relative to the source, the said scanning movement having a step dimension of the order of the spatial resolution sought, (d) a means for conducting the said scanning movement, for storing the said electrical signals related to the position of the said collimator and the position of the said radiation impact, for processing the information thus stored in order to reconstruct the image of the said emitting object, the said collimator having at least two openings whose narrowest cross-section has a dimension larger than twice the intrinsic spatial resolution of the said detector, the improvement characterized in that the said collimator possesses at least two holes of different shapes, sizes or orientations resulting in different overlapping impulse functions in the Fourier space.