High-Dynamic-Range CT Reconstruction Based on Varying Tube-Voltage Imaging

For complicated structural components characterized by wide X-ray attenuation ranges, the conventional computed tomography (CT) imaging using a single tube-voltage at each rotation angle cannot obtain all structural information. This limitation results in a shortage of CT information, because the effective thickness of the components along the direction of X-ray penetration exceeds the limitation of the dynamic range of the X-ray imaging system. To address this problem, high-dynamic-range CT (HDR-CT) reconstruction is proposed. For this new method, the tube’s voltage is adjusted several times to match the corresponding effective thickness about the local information from an object. Then, HDR fusion and HDR-CT are applied to obtain the full reconstruction information. An accompanying experiment demonstrates that this new technology can extend the dynamic range of X-ray imaging systems and provide the complete internal structures of complicated structural components.