Patent ID: 7099436

Claim:
An apparatus for simultaneously obtaining plurality of one-dimensional images of an examination object, wherein different ones of said one-dimensional images are formed from radiation coherently scattered at different angles, said apparatus comprising: a radiation source arrangement for creating a collimated radiation beam of ionizing radiation for irradiating said examination object; and a radiation detector arrangement comprising a stack of line detector units, each line detector unit being directed towards a small portion of a trajectory of said radiation beam in said examination object to allow a respective ray bundle of said radiation beam as coherently scattered in said examination object to enter the line detector unit and be detected therein; wherein each of said line detector units has an elongated opening extending essentially orthogonal to said radiation beam for entry of the respective coherently scattered ray bundle; a row of individual detector elements arranged essentially parallel with said elongated opening for detecting different portions of said ray bundle scattered at different angles with respect to a plane whose normal is parallel with the extension of the elongated opening; and is of the kind wherein charges or photons, generated by interactions between the respective coherently scattered ray bundle and a detection medium within the respective line detector unit and traveling in a direction essentially perpendicular to the respective coherently scattered ray bundle, are detected by said row of individual detector elements; said line detector units are direction sensitive and directed towards different adjacent positions along the trajectory of said radiation beam in said examination object so that ray bundles of said radiation beam as coherently scattered in different small portions of said examination object enter different ones of said line detector units and are detected therein; and said radiation detector arrangement is adapted to form each one of said plurality of one-dimensional images from each of said line detector units detected by an individual detector element thereof, wherein the individual detector elements, which detect the signals used for the formation of a single one-dimensional image, detect portions of the ray bundles that are scattered at a similar angle, wherein said plurality of one-dimensional images are images along the radiation beam as detected at different angles with respect to said plane.