Development of the First Helical CT Scanner in China: CT-C3000

During the last 10 years, faster scanning speed has been a major driving force for the development of new CT scanners. The most important reason is with higher scanning speed, it is now possible to scan the lung within one breath hold, and to use less enhancement injection in patients while still having good images. 1990s have seen the occurrence and development of belieal CT scanners. Slip ring technology made it possible for the tube and detectors to rotate in one direction continuously thus saved the scanning time remarkably. Moreover, proper interpolation software and scan control software together made belieal scan possible, where the couch moves continuously while the tube and detectors are rotating, with no need of repeatedly turning on and off the x-ray. 3D rendering became more practical with helical scan, which is sometimes called volume scan. Having sold over a hundred sets of CT-C2000, which is a conventional third generation CT scanner, we had enough experience and decided to develop helieal scanner in 1998. Up to now our helical scanners have been put to market and two sets have been sold in China. With medium and high performance and relatively low price, it will have a promising market share. Some of the main technology us have used in this scanner is listed below. We used Scintillator detectors instead of xenon-gas detectors to raise image quality significantly because of their much higher conversion efficiency. We used low-voltage slip ring and a special communication system to transmit data at over 10Mbps. Together with the rotation system, we achieved one-second full scan.With sophisticated control and interpolation software, our scanner have helical scan, multiple helieal scan, mixed axial and helieal scan and automatic tilting.We developed the whole software system by ourselves with Intelligence Property Right. The software included data acquisition, high voltage generator control, gantry and couch control, communication, data correction, image reconstruction, graphical user interface, database, filming, image manipulation, and 3D rendering such as NPR, MIP, and SSD. We used PC workstation and software optimization to achieve 5-second reconstruction time.