Patent ID: 7742563

Claim:
A non-translational x-ray diffraction (XRD) system, comprising: a scanning area configured to receive an object to be scanned, the object traversing through the scanning area; a distributed x-ray source affixed to a first side of the scanning area and configured to emit x-rays towards the object, the distributed x-ray source including a plurality of x-ray focal spot locations, the distributed x-ray source configured to emit the x-rays as a series of parallel x-ray beams; a stationary detector affixed to a second side of the scanning area generally opposite the distributed x-ray source, the stationary detector configured to measure a coherent scatter spectra of the x-rays after passing through the object; a secondary ray collimator positioned between the object and the stationary detector, the secondary ray collimator configured to allow only scattered x-rays within a certain scatter angle range to be received at the stationary detector; and a data acquisition system (DAS) connected to the stationary detector and configured to measure the coherent scatter spectra, the coherent scatter spectra utilized to generate XRD data and to determine a material composition of at least a portion of the object from the XRD data.