Patent ID: 8605854

Claim:
A mammography apparatus comprising: an x-ray source that emits x-ray radiation; an x-ray detector comprised of a plurality of detector pixels; said x-ray source and said x-ray detector being mounted with said x-ray source at a stationary position relative to said x-ray detector, and said x-ray source being adapted to irradiate breast tissue of a patient, located between said x-ray source and said x-ray detector, with said x-ray radiation, said x-ray radiation being detected by said x-ray detector after passing through said breast tissue; said x-ray source being configured to emit said x-ray radiation from each of a plurality of different emission-originating positions within said x-ray source that are located at respectively different distances from a frontal plane of the patient that is parallel to a shoulder-to-shoulder axis of the patient so as to irradiate said breast tissue from a plurality of different directions; said plurality of different emission-originating positions being arranged in a geometrical shape selected from the group consisting of a T-shape, a U-shape, and a π-shape; and a control unit configured to operate said x-ray source to cause x-ray radiation to be emitted respectively at said different positions in succession.