EVALUATION OF HEXAGONAL AND SQUARE GEOMETRIES FOR MOTION-FREE ARRAYED-SOURCE X-RAY MICRO-CT

We perform a simulation study of proposed square and hexagonal geometries multi-source X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) system. The systems are based on dense arrays of microfabricated field-emission X-ray sources which are individually addressable. The hexagonal system has three linear arrays of X-ray sources and three area detectors, forming the six sides of a hexagon. Like the square system proposed previously, the hexagonal system requires no motion of source or subject and the angular sampling for tomography is achieved by flashing the individual sources. An iterative reconstruction algorithm is implemented in both geometries. Using data simulated from a realistic mouse phantom, we demonstrate that both geometries can be effectively reconstructed and the hexagonal system has better performance than the square geometry in terms of limited-angle artifacts, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio. We conclude that the hexagonal geometry improves performance as compared to the square geometry for motion-free micro-CT