Hadamard multiplexing radiography based on carbon nanotube field emission multi-pixel x-ray technology

Currently all CT scanners collect the projection images sequentially, one at a time. The serial approach demands high x-ray power which in turn limits the scanning speed of the CT scanners. To overcome the limitations of the current CT scanners, the concept of stationary CT canners has been proposed to completely eliminate the need for gantry rotation. In such multi-pixel x-ray system, multiple x-ray sources and detectors are distributed around the scanning tunnel. Based on the multi-pixel x-ray system, we have recently demonstrated the feasibility of multiplexing radiography that enables simultaneous collection of multiple projection images through multiplexing. A drastic increase of the speed and reduction of the x-ray peak power can be potentially achieved without compromising the imaging quality. In this paper we demonstrated novel Hadamard multiplexing radiography based on Hadamard transform technique using a carbon nanotube based multi-pixel x-ray source. The combination of the multi-pixel x-ray and multiplexing technologies has the potential to lead to a new generation of stationary CT scanners that have drastically increased throughput at reduced cost.