Operating high-current field emitters in a commercial X-ray source

The need for a low-cost, low-dose 3D imaging capability, as an alternative to CT and MRI scanners, has driven the development of a multi-cathode, stationary Digital Tomosynthesis (s-DT) scanner. Demonstration experiments with an array of cold cathodes as electron sources have been reported by multiple groups. We report the operation of a device with a different field emitter geometry, at 60kV, to obtain images of a dental phantom, and the subsequent reconstruction of the raw images to obtain 3D slices. Failure mechanisms of the emitters, possible mitigation options, and the future outlook of emitter array devices are also discussed.