Radiographic system

Claim 2

A radiographic system comprising: a source of penetrative radiation (10); a detector (14) having a plurality of energy sensitive detector elements for producing electrical signals in response to said radiation; and means for actuating the source to direct radiation through a subject (P) to emerge therefrom in a pattern a portion of which is incident on the detector (14); characterised in that it includes means (30) for moving the detector (14) relative to the subject (P) while simultaneously exposing a plurality of said detector elements to said radiation emergent from the subject (P); time delay and integrate circuitry associated with the detector elements for operating upon the electrical signals for enhancement of their signal to noise ratio, and imaging circuitry (44) responsive to said enhanced signals for producing a representation of internal subject structure corresponding to said pattern of emergent radiation.

Claim 3

A system according to Claim 1 wherein said means for moving the detector comprises means (30) for pivoting the radiation source (10) and for moving the detector (14) in synchrony with said pivoting motion for simultaneously exposing a plurality of said detector elements to said radiation emergent from the subject (P).

Claim 5

A system according to Claim 3 in which said light sensitive detector elements (86) do not face said source of penetrative radiation (10).

Claim 6

A system according to Claim 3 or Claim 4 in which said means for optically coupling comprises a fibre optic light pipe (90).

Claim 8

A system according to Claim 1 in which said source is an x-ray source (10) and said detector is an x-ray detector (14) including a first elongated array of detector elements each element responsive to occurrence of x-ray energy incident on a different detector region to produce and maintain an electrical signal representing the incident x-ray energy; and said means for moving the detector comprises a scanner apparatus (24) comprising: apparatus for effecting longitudinal motion of the detector element array at a predetermined velocity relative to the subject (P) to be examined; and apparatus (30) associated with the x-ray source (10) for directing x-ray energy through the subject (P) to emerge for simultaneously exposing to x-ray a plurality of said detector elements during the course of said longitudinal relative motion; and said time delay and integrate circuitry comprises circuitry (56) coupled to the detector elements for shifting and integrating said electrical signals iteratively in a longitudinal direction along the detector elements at velocity equal and opposite to said predetermined velocity of longitudinal detector motion and output circuitry (44) for transmitting said shifted and integrated electrical signals from a circuitry location associated with one of said detector elements synchronous with each arrival of a shifted and integrated signal at said circuitry location.

Claim 9

A system according to Claim 7,further comprising: structure (16) defining a fore slit (18) interposed between the x-ray tube (10) and the subject (P) for collimating x-ray energy emanating from the tube; structure (20) defining an aft slit (22) positioned between the subject (P) and said detector array for further collimating said x-ray energy, and said scanner apparatus (24) further comprising: apparatus for moving said structures defining said fore (18) and aft (22) slits synchronously with said pivoting motion of said x-ray tube (10) to maintain said slits continuously in a beam of x-ray energy emanating from the tube and for maintaining mutual alignment of the slits with the detector (14).

Claim 10

A system according to Claim 7 or Claim 8 further comprising: an encoder (36) for sensing location of the movable detector array and coupled to synchronize said x-ray tube pivoting motion with motion of the detector array.

Claim 14

A radiographic system according to any one of the preceding claims in which said time delay and integrate circuitry comprises shift register (201-265) and clocking circuitry (46) associated with the detector elements for operating upon the electrical signals for enhancement of their signal to noise ratio, said time delay and integrate circuitry comprising: means (295) associated with the clocking circuitry for periodically reversing the direction of clocking of charge signals through the shift register circuitry; means (290) for reversing the direction of said detector movement in synchrony with said reversed clocking, and circuitry coupled for reading data out of either end of said shift register dependent on the direction of said clocking and said detector movement.

Claim 15

A radiographic system comprising: a source for directing penetrative energy through a subject; a detector including an array of individual detector elements, each detector element having a rectangular shaped receiving face facing toward said source, a width dimension of each said detector element face being substantially less than an orthongonal length dimension of said detector element, each said detector element responsive to the occurrence of incident emanation to produce electrical signals representing said emanations; and imaging circuitry coupled to said detector elements for processing said electrical signals and producing from said processed signals a tangible representation of internal subject structure.

Claim 16

A radiographic system comprising: a source for directing penetrative energy through a subject; a detector including an array of individual detector elements, each detector element having a rectangular shaped receiving face facing toward said source, a width dimension of each said detector element face being substantially less than an orthongonal length dimension of said detector element, each said detector element responsive to the occurrence of incident emanation to produce electrical signals representing said emanations; and imaging circuitry coupled to said detector elements for processing said electrical signals and producing from said processed signals a tangible representation of internal subject structure.

Claim 17

An x-ray detector assembly comprising: a portion of material (96) responsive to x-ray energy incident thereon to produce visible light; an array of individual detector elements (98); each element having a receiving face optically coupled to said material and each element being responsive to visible light incident on its receiving surface to produce an electrical signal representing such light, characterised in that each element is disposed at a location such that its receiving face does not directly face the x-ray energy.

Claim 18

An x-ray detector assembly comprising: a portion of material (96) responsive to x-ray energy incident thereon to produce visible light; an array of individual detector elements (98); each element having a receiving face optically coupled to said material and each element being responsive to visible light incident on its receiving surface to produce an electrical signal representing such light, characterised in that each element is disposed at a location such that its receiving face does not directly face the x-ray energy.

Claim 19

An assembly according to Claim 15 in which each element is optically coupled to said material by an optical fibre (90).

Claim 22

The method of Claim 17, utilizing collimating structure (16) defining a fore slit (18) interposed between the source (10) and the subject (P) and structure (20) defining an aft slit (22) positioned between the subject (P) and the detector (14), said method comprising the additional step of: moving said slit defining structures synchronously with said pivoting of said x-ray source to maintain said slits continuously in a beam of x-ray energy from the source and for maintaining mutual alignment of the slits.