Patent ID: 7460636

Claim:
A computerized tomography (CT) scanning system comprising: a gantry operable to rotate about a rotation axis; and first and second X-ray imagers mounted on said gantry, each X-ray imager comprising a radiation source and a detector, wherein said radiation source is operative to emit a radiation beam and said detector is positioned to receive said radiation beam so as to acquire partial projection sets of an object through which said beams pass, wherein a union of said partial projection sets forms a projection set sufficient for CT reconstruction of said object; wherein the radiation source and the detector of each of said X-ray imagers are aligned off-axis with respect to an isocenter lying on said rotation axis, wherein each of said radiation beams comprise a cone beam, and wherein a periphery of the cone beam of the first X-ray imager intersects the isocenter and extends to a first radius outwards from the isocenter and said rotation axis thereby defining an inner circle, and wherein a periphery of the cone beam of the second X-ray imager is tangent to said inner circle and the periphery of the cone beam of the second X-ray imager extends to a second radius outwards from the isocenter and said rotation axis thereby defining an outer circle; and wherein said partial projection sets comprise projections of axial cylindrical object shells, wherein said axial cylindrical object shells are bound by an innermost shell, defined by the periphery of the cone beam of the first X-ray imager that extends to the inner circle relative to the rotation axis, and by an outermost shell, defined by the periphery of the cone beam of the second X-ray imager that extends to the outer circle relative to the rotation axis.