Patent ID: 8553835

Claim:
A computed tomography scanner comprising a component mounting assembly, an x-ray tube, a filter assembly, and a detector assembly, wherein: the x-ray tube is operable to radiate x-ray photons within an x-ray beam toward the detector assembly; the x-ray tube is coupled to the component mounting assembly at a first end, and the detector assembly is couple to the component mounting assembly at a second end that is opposite from the first end; the component mounting assembly is rotatable such that the x-ray tube and the detector assembly are rotatable about a rotation axis within a central opening of the component mounting assembly; the filter assembly is positioned in a path of the x-ray beam and comprises an x-ray filter with a first filter element and a second filter element and configured to pass x-ray photons propagating toward the detector assembly within a high dose portion of the x-ray beam, and reduce the number of x-ray photons propagating toward the detector assembly in one or more low dose portions of the x-ray beam, a filter enclosure defining a recess, an x-ray shield component and a filter lid, the first and second filter elements are slidably positioned within the recess such that a size of the high dose portion of the x-ray beam is defined by a distance of the first filter element from the second filter element, the x-ray shield component is positioned within the recess, and comprises an x-ray absorbing material that defines an opening through which x-ray photons of the x-ray beam may pass toward the detector assembly, and the filter lid is coupled to the filter enclosure and comprises a corresponding opening that is aligned with the opening of the x-ray shield component when the filter lid is coupled to the filter enclosure; and the detector assembly comprises an array of detector elements capable of detecting x-ray photons of the x-ray beam, and configured such that the high dose portion of the x-ray beam strikes a high resolution region of the detector assembly and the one or more low dose portions of the x-ray beam strike one or more low resolution regions of the detector assembly.