Patent ID: 6973158

Claim:
A method of imaging and determining constituents of a body, comprising the steps of: (a) selecting a beam parameter from a set of beam parameters for use in generation of X-ray radiation to provide M sets of spectral characteristics; (b) projecting a focused electron beam through a vacuum envelope towards a target, and scanning the focused electron beam onto the target in a directional sweep using the selected beam parameter; (c) in consequence of the projecting step, producing X-ray radiation with a first spectrum according to electron beam parameters at a multiplicity of locations along the target, and directing said radiation through the body to the detectors by use of a collimator; (d) filtering the radiation to refine the X-ray radiation; (e) detecting the X-ray radiation energy after passage through the body by use of a detector array that contains multiple detectors to produce detection signals from the detectors, the detection signals being representative of the X-ray spectrum and body attenuation and defining a first set of X-ray projection paths and associated measurements sufficient for at least one of a projection image, a limited-angle CT reconstruction and tomosynthesis reconstruction of at least one slice through the body; (e) iterating the steps above (a) through (e) to generate T electron beam sweeps along the targets for M sets of spectral characteristics, in synchrony with at least one of advancing the detector array, advancing the body, and electron-beam target selection or rotation, in such a manner that each X-ray radiation path through the body is sampled T times with M spectra to provide sufficient data for the at least one of the projection image, the limited-angle CT reconstruction and the tomosynthesis reconstruction of at least one slice through the body; and (f) processing the data to produce a decomposition of reconstructed multi-spectral tomographic images onto a set of known basis functions representative of body constituents for the at least one slice through the body.