Patent ID: 10575391

Abstract:
The present invention relates to a device (34) and a method (70) for determining a status of an X-ray tube (10) of an X-ray system (36). Due to ageing and/or wear of the X-ray tube, the spectrum of the X-ray radiation (30) provided by the X-ray tube may change over the operation time of the X-ray tube. The present invention therefore suggests evaluating spectrally different values detected with an X-ray detector arrangement (32) of the X-ray system. A reference data set representing a reference condition of the X-ray tube by a plurality of spectrally different reference-values (44) and a working data set representing an aged condition of the X-ray tube by a plurality of spectrally different working-values (46) of detected X-ray radiation are used to determine an equivalent filtration function for an filtration material influencing a source X-ray radiation (26) emitted by an anode (16) of the X-ray tube. Accordingly, the filtration function provides the information about the material being used for the filtration and/or its length, which may provide the basis to determine the condition and thus the status of the X-ray tube.