High speed, small footprint x-ray tomography inspection systems, devices, and methods

1. A computed tomography inspection system, comprising:

a conveyor configured to move an object to be inspected through an inspection zone along a direction of travel;

one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays operable to provide multiple collimated x-ray beams through the inspection zone along a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel;

one or more x-ray detector arrays configured to detect x-ray beams passing through the inspection zone from the x-ray source array;

an electronic controller operable to electronically turn on and turn off individual x-ray beams from the x-ray source array according to a preprogrammed pattern;

a signal processing unit operable to record corresponding x-ray signals detected by the x-ray detector array and to form multiple x-ray projection images of the object; and

a data processor unit operable for processing the multiple x-ray projection images into three-dimensional tomographic images of the object.

2. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the inspection zone comprises a tunnel through which the conveyor passes.

3. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays comprise one or more non-circular arrays.

4. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays are configured to generate multiple collimated x-ray fan beams.

5. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays are configured to generate multiple collimated x-ray cone beams.

6. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays comprises a plurality of field emission electron sources.

7. The inspection system of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of field emission electron sources comprises carbon nanotube field emission electron sources.

8. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein one or more first multibeam x-ray source arrays are disposed above or below the inspection zone and one or more second multibeam detector arrays are disposed at a side of the inspection zone.

9. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays comprises between approximately 5 and 100 individual x-ray generating source elements.

10. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more x-ray source arrays comprise a first x-ray source array operable to generate relatively lower energy x-ray beams and a second x-ray source array operable to generate relatively higher energy x-ray beams.

11. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein one of the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays and a corresponding one of the one or more x-ray detector arrays are positioned at least substantially in the same plane.

12. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays comprise at least one first multibeam x-ray source array and at least one second multibeam x-ray source array;

wherein the one or more x-ray detector arrays comprise at least one first x-ray detector array corresponding to the first multibeam x-ray source array and at least one second x-ray detector array corresponding to the second multibeam x-ray source array; and

wherein the first multibeam x-ray source array and the second multibeam x-ray source array are positioned on two parallel planes separated by a predetermined distance along the direction of travel.

13. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more x-ray detector arrays comprise one of an L-shaped array or a U-shaped array.

14. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more x-ray detector arrays each comprise at least two sets of detecting elements, wherein one set is optimized to detect relatively lower energy x-ray and another set is optimized to detect relatively higher energy x-ray.

15. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more x-ray detector arrays comprise multiple detector lines or an area detector.

16. The inspection system of claim 1 , wherein the data processing unit is configured and operable such that three-dimensional tomographic images of the object can be reconstructed when a subset of projection images are excluded from the data set for reconstruction.

17. A method for x-ray inspection of objects, the method comprising:

moving an object to be inspected through an inspection zone along a direction of travel;

operating one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays to provide multiple collimated x-ray beams through the inspection zone along a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel;

electronically turning on and turning off individual x-ray beams from the x-ray source array according to a preprogrammed pattern;

detecting x-ray beams passing through the inspection zone from the x-ray source array;

recording corresponding x-ray signals detected by the x-ray detector array and to form multiple x-ray projection images of the object; and

processing the multiple x-ray projection images into three-dimensional tomographic images of the object.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein recording corresponding x-ray signals comprise recording a total number of projections that is less than approximately 200.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein processing the multiple x-ray projection images comprises utilizing iterative reconstruction algorithms.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein operating one or more multibeam x-ray source arrays comprises generating fan beams from a subset of x-ray source elements simultaneously; and

wherein recording corresponding x-ray signals comprises obtaining multiple projection images through multiplexing x-ray imaging methods.