Patent Application
20060239412
The present application hereby claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 on German patent application number DE 10 2005 017 944.4 filed Apr. 18, 2005, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The invention generally relates to a transportable flat X-ray detector. For example, it may relate to one including a housing with a grip and an active surface with a scintillator layer and semiconductor layer that includes a multiplicity of pixel elements arranged in a matrix.
Digital flat X-ray detectors have been changing classic radiography or fluoroscopy, angiography and cardanigiography for years. The most varied technologies, including digital ones, have already been in use in part for a long time, examples being image intensifier camera systems based on television or CCD cameras, storage film systems with an integrated or external readout unit, systems with optical coupling of the converter foil to CCDs or CMOS chips, selenium-based detectors with electrostatic readout (for example Thoravision) and solid-state detectors with active readout matrices and direct or indirect conversion of the X-radiation.
In particular, novel solid-state detectors (FD) for digital X-ray imaging have been undergoing introduction to the markets for a few years; these are based on active readout matrices, for example made from amorphous silicon (a-Si). The image information is converted in an X-ray converter, for example caesium iodide (CsI), stored in the photodiodes of the matrix as electric charge, and subsequently read out via an active switch element with the aid of dedicated electronics, subjected to analog-to-digital conversion and processed further by the image system.
Related technologies likewise employ an active readout matrix made from amorphous silicon, but a converter (for example selenium) that directly generates electrical charge that is then stored on an electrode. The stored charge is subsequently read out in order to generate an image signal. Other technologies are based on CCDs (charge coupled devices) or APS (active pixel sensor) or large-area CMOS chips, as described, for example, in Spahn et al., “Röntgen-Flachdetektoren in der Röntgendiagnostik” [“Flat X-ray detectors in X-ray diagnostics”], Radiologe 43 (2003), pages 340 to 350.
Portable flat X-ray detectors have also recently become available. These are used both for free images and for so-called bed lungs. In the technical jargon, bed lungs are pulmonary images taken with the aid of a mobile X-ray diagnostic device in the bed.
Particularly in the case of these bed lungs, but also, however, in the case of other applications, the detector is placed completely below the patient. This may include, for example, a handle that is attached on the longitudinal side of the flat X-ray detector and lies transverse to the bed. Above all else, it is difficult with patients who are older, traumatized or otherwise difficult to move for handling to be carried out below the patient, to place the flat X-ray detector and to remove it. Such a flat X-ray detector having a grip is known, for example, from the brochure by Siemens Medical Solutions entitled “AXIOM Multix M Your portal to the world of direct digital radiography” with order number A91100-M1200-B527-2-7600.
An object of at least one embodiment of the application includes designing a transportable flat X-ray detector in such a way that the flat X-ray detector can be more easily operated, for example in the case of bed-based imaging.
An object may be achieved according to at least one embodiment of the invention by virtue of the fact that gripping elements are provided in the housing at the edge of the flat X-ray detector outside the active surface. This yields a transportable flat X-ray detector having additional gripping elements for simple handling, in particular in the case of bed lungs.
It has proved to be advantageous when the gripping elements are holes and/or alternatively depressions, pits or troughs.
According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the gripping elements can be arranged in the corners of the flat X-ray detector.
The additional gripping elements interfere the least in the detector design when they are arranged on both sides next to the grip.
The gripping elements can advantageously have a diameter of the size of a finger.
The invention is explained below in more detail with the aid of example embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in which:
The flat X-ray detector 6 is illustrated in perspective cross section in
All the pixels of a row are respectively simultaneously addressed and read out by the driving circuits 18. In the simplest case, an image is read out progressively row by row. The signals are fed to a processing circuit via readout electronics 19 in which the signals are processed in parallel in a multiplicity of amplifiers, brought together by multiplexers and converted in an analog-to-digital converter (A/D converter) to form a digital output signal for the purpose of further digital processing.
If, as illustrated in
Essentially the same flat X-ray detector 6 is illustrated in
The following advantages accrue owing to the inventive design of the flat X-ray detector 6 in which, apart from the actual grip 7, approximately finger size gripping elements in the form of gripping holes 8, depressions and/or gripping troughs are provided at the edge of the flat X-ray detector 6, outside the active surface 21:
The solutions can be employed both for portable flat X-ray detectors with cable, and for flat X-ray detectors 6 without cable.
Example embodiments being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2005 017 944.4 | Apr 2005 | DE | national |
