JP2593626B2 - CT scanner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a CT scanner for CT-scanning a subject to collect data and reconstruct a CT image, and more particularly to an improvement in power supply equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, power supply equipment installed in a CT scanner such as an X-ray CT scanner is used for a unit which consumes a large amount of power during scanning, such as an imaging means such as an X-ray tube or a driving system such as a gantry or a bed. When power is supplied, power received from a commercial power supply is directly supplied to the unit that consumes the large power.

[0003] Therefore, in the conventional CT scanner, the power supply equipment is configured to have a large power capacity in consideration of providing a peak power about ten times to several tens times that of a non-scan during scanning.

[0004]

Therefore, in the case of the conventional CT scanner, the cost of the equipment is reduced, for example, by setting the power cable rating to correspond to the peak power at the time of scanning in order to make the power equipment have a large power capacity. It was also disadvantageous in terms of power consumption contracts with power companies.

[0005] Moreover, the actual scanning time of the CT scanner is 8 hours of operation per day,
Even if 200 scans are performed during these 8 hours, 3 seconds per scan is about 600 seconds (10 minutes), so
In the case of using power equipment with a large power capacity as in the past,
This is very expensive in terms of facility utilization efficiency.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to reduce the power consumption of a commercial power supply to a value that can cope with peak power during scanning.
A T-scanner is provided.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the first invention of the present application discloses a method in which a subject is subjected to a CT scan to obtain a data.
In a CT scanner that collects data and reconstructs a CT image, a load having an X-ray tube that consumes a large amount of power during scanning, a commercial power supply that supplies power to the load, and whether or not a large amount of power is supplied to the load The power is connected between the commercial power supply and the load so that the power from the commercial power supply is always continuously supplied regardless of the power supply, and the large power supply to the load is superimposed on the power supplied from the commercial power supply. It is characterized in that a secondary battery that is operated in a different manner is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a CT scanner for performing CT scanning of a subject to collect data by reconstructing a CT image and having a load having an X-ray tube consuming a large amount of power during scanning. A commercial power supply that supplies a large amount of power to a load, a scanning unit that repeatedly and continuously performs a scan cycle of pausing the scan for a predetermined period after scanning the predetermined position and displaying a CT image of the position during the pause period, It is connected between the commercial power supply side and this load so that power from the commercial power supply is always continuously supplied regardless of the presence or absence of the large power supply to the load. A secondary battery is provided, which overlaps with electric power supplied from a commercial power supply.

[0009] Further, the third invention of the present application provides the first and second inventions.
In the second aspect of the present invention, a second power supply which is connected to the commercial power supply directly or via a rectifier circuit and consumes small power during a scan pause
Characterized by having a load of

[0010]

With the configuration of the CT scanner according to the present invention, the power supply equipment can supply part of the peak power at the time of scanning under a load consuming a large amount of power with the secondary battery, so that the power supply capacity of the commercial power supply can be reduced as compared with the conventional one. And can be significantly reduced.

[0011]

1 and 2 show a CT to which the present invention is applied.
It is a block diagram which shows each Example of the power supply equipment in a scanner.

A power supply system according to an embodiment shown in FIG. 1 has a switching operation unit provided between a rectifier circuit 2 and a first unit 3 in which AC power of a commercial power supply 1 is converted into DC power by a rectifier circuit 2. When the switch 4 selects the rectifier circuit 2 side, the DC power from the rectifier circuit 2 is supplied to the secondary battery 5, and when the switching operation section 4 selects the first unit 3 side, the secondary battery 5 is supplied with power. A charging / discharging circuit for supplying power to the first unit 3 is formed as a power source. The DC power from the rectifier circuit 2 is directly supplied to the second unit 6. However, the selection of the rectifier circuit 2 side in the switching operation unit 4 is executed during non-scanning, and the first unit 3 is selected.
The selection on the side is performed at the time of scanning, and these are performed in synchronization with the timing of a non-scanning operation and a scanning operation of a controller (not shown).

The power supply equipment according to another embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is inserted between the rectifier circuit 2 and the first unit 3 without interposing a switching operation part.
From the rectifier circuit 2 and the DC power from the secondary battery 5 are superimposed during scanning to supply power to the first unit 3. A charging / discharging circuit to be performed is formed. The AC power from the commercial power supply 1 is directly supplied to the second unit 6.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a first unit 3 is a generic name for each unit that consumes a large amount of power during scanning of an X-ray tube or the like, and a second unit is a scanning unit. Each unit that consumes substantially constant power irrespective of non-scanning is generically indicated.

The power supply equipment of each embodiment can be applied to, for example, an X-ray CT scanner having an appearance as shown in FIG. The X-ray CT scanner includes a tilt-driven gantry 7 and a subject P
And a bed 8 for inserting and moving the bed and adjusting the height. The gantry 7 includes an X-ray tube 9 and an X-ray detector 10.
Are provided, and a scanning operation on the subject P can be performed while rotating these around the subject P.

As described above, by supplying power to the first unit that consumes a large amount of power during scanning from the secondary battery 5 or from the secondary battery 5 and the rectifier circuit 2, the commercial power supply 1 Power supply capacity can be significantly reduced as compared with the related art.

In other words, the power of the peak value with respect to the first unit 3 is supplied from the secondary battery 5 or both the secondary battery 5 and the rectifier circuit (commercial power supply side) 2, so that FIGS. Power supply equipment as shown in FIG.
Power supply equipment that does not require power reception corresponding to the peak power of the first unit 3 and receives power corresponding to the average power of the first unit 3 is sufficient.

For example, the scan time is 200 scans /
If one scan is 3 seconds per day, 600 seconds / day, the peak power is required. If the operating time per day is 8 hours, it is 2% per day from 10 minutes / 480 minutes. The strength level is the peak power supply time.

Therefore, if the peak power at the time of scanning is about 10 times the power at the time of non-scanning, the average power is about 1.2 times the power at the time of non-scanning. Therefore, with the configuration of the power supply equipment of each embodiment of the present invention, the power supply capacity of the commercial power supply can be reduced to about 1/8 of the conventional power supply. Along with this, the rating of the power cable can be suppressed to a small power capacity.

Further, regarding the portion of the X-ray high-voltage device in the X-ray CT scanner, a secondary battery 5a as shown in FIG. Power fluctuations of the power supply can be effectively blunted and smoothed, and boosting for X-ray generation becomes possible. That is, the configuration shown in FIG. 4 uses the secondary battery 5a as a main power supply source to the high-voltage transformer 11 which is a main part of the X-ray high-voltage device, and from this secondary battery 5a to the high-voltage transformer 11 to the chopper 12 and the inverter. Since the charging / discharging circuit for supplying power via the power supply 13 is formed, the power of the secondary battery 5a is changed during the pause before the scan including the scan, including the power during the scan.
Can be charged. In the figure, reference numeral 9 denotes an X-ray tube.

Therefore, when the CT scanner is operated in a sequence fixed to the scan-and-view mode, that is, when the CT scanner is operated so that a pause is secured for a certain period of time, the CT scanner is charged at the time of the scan pause. By selecting the secondary battery 5a so that the next scan can be performed with energy, a very economical CT system can be realized.

For example, as shown in FIG.
In a scan cycle with 3 seconds and the shortest scan interval: 20 seconds, the total power of about 3/20 of the power and the power required at all times may be prepared, and the total power of the conventional power supply is several minutes. That is, the power supply capacity of 1 is sufficient.

Conventionally, as a commercial power source, a three-phase power source 1a as shown in FIG.
And an electrolytic capacitor bank 14 was used for smoothing. In FIG. 6, portions corresponding to the same reference numerals as in FIG. 4 are shown.

From the above, in the case of the scan cycle illustrated in FIG. 5, when the scan condition is 120 KV and 200 mA in the conventional configuration as shown in FIG. 6, 120 KV × 200 mA {0.7}. While 34 KVA is required, the configuration to which the present invention is applied as shown in FIG. 4 results in 34 KV × 3/20 ≒ 5 KVA, which means that a small power supply capacity is sufficient. In the above equation,
0.7 represents the efficiency, and here it is assumed to be 0.7.

[0025]

As described above, in the CT scanner to which the present invention is applied, since the secondary battery is provided as a power supply source to a load that consumes a large amount of power during scanning, the power capacity of the commercial power supply is reduced. Accordingly, the power cable can be selected with a low power capacity for the rating of the power cable. Therefore, according to the present invention, there is obtained an advantage that power supply equipment for a CT scanner can be constructed more economically than in the past.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a power supply facility in a CT scanner to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the power supply equipment in the CT scanner to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of an example of a CT scanner.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a power supply system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing a scan cycle.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a conventional power supply facility.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Commercial power supply 2 Rectifier circuit 3 1st unit 4 Switching operation part 5, 5a Secondary battery 6 2nd unit 11 High voltage transformer 12 Chopper 13 Inverter

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A CT scanner for CT-scanning a subject to collect data and reconstruct a CT image, comprising: a load having an X-ray tube consuming a large amount of power during scanning; The commercial power supply to be supplied is connected between the commercial power supply side and this load so that power from the commercial power supply side is continuously supplied regardless of whether or not a large amount of power is supplied to the load. And a secondary battery that supplies a large amount of electric power by superimposing it on the electric power supplied from the commercial power supply. 2. A CT scanner for CT-scanning a subject to collect data and reconstruct a CT image, comprising: a load having an X-ray tube consuming large power during scanning; and supplying a large power to the load. Scanning means for continuously and repeatedly performing a scan cycle of pausing a scan for a predetermined period after scanning a predetermined position and displaying a CT image at the position during the pause period; and supplying a large power to the load. Is connected between the commercial power supply and the load so that power from the commercial power supply is always continuously supplied irrespective of the presence or absence of the electric power supplied from the commercial power supply to the load. A CT scanner, comprising: a secondary battery that overlaps with a secondary battery. 3. The CT scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a second load connected to the commercial power supply directly or via a rectifier circuit and consuming a small amount of power during a scan pause.