Steps for X-Ray Production:

1. Call the electric company and set up an account

2. Make sure generator is plugged in
3. At control panel hold down exposure button for rotor to warm up and take image
a. Control console is always operated at the low voltage side of the circuit to protect the
technologist from shock hazard
4. When holding down exposure button, a current travels from the control panel to the tube head
through electrical wires
5. The incoming current passes through the line compensator, which adjusts voltage to 220V
6. Then it reaches the autotransformer, which is controlled by kVp selector on control panel
a. Autotransformer is used to adjust the incoming line voltage to an appropriate level for
the high voltage step-up transformer
b. Autotransformer has one core winding
c. Self-induction or electromagnetic induction is used
7. kVp meter reads the voltage coming out of the autotransformer
8. The current continues to the high-voltage step-up transformer (V to kV)
a. Which is used to increase the voltage from the primary coil to the secondary coil
9. Next, the current goes to the four diode rectifier
a. Process where AC is changed to pulsating DC and requires the use of the one-way
electrical devices called rectifiers (which are also diodes)
b. Rectifiers are made of 2 semiconductor crystals (P and N type)
i. P type has many electron traps (positive charge)
ii. N type has many free electrons (negative charge)
iii. How they work:
1. P traps and N electrons move toward and across the p-n junction
allowing current to flow
2. When AC cycle reverses (wave goes to negative side)
a. P traps receive negative charge
b. N crystals receive positive charge
c. NO ELECTRICITY FLOWS, BC P & N dont move to junction, no
current
10. Rectification waves
a. Half-wave rectification
i. Produces 100% ripple
ii. Downside
1. Wastes power supply
2. Requires 2x exposure time of full wave
b. Full-wave rectification
i. Produces 100% ripple
ii. Utilizes full AC cycle
iii. Minimum of 4 rectifiers in for each phase of cycle
iv. 2 diodes block the negative pulse, 2 redirect it
v. Advantages

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11.
12.
13.
14.

1. Uses input energy more efficiently

2. Exposure time is halved
vi. Disadvantages
1. X-ray beam still pulsing
2. 1/3 of beam not useful
c. Three phase six pulse
i. 13% ripple
d. Three phase twelve pulse
i. 4% ripple
e. High frequency generator
i. 1% ripple
ii. Creates a pulsed DC current
iii. Advantages
1. More efficient the 60 Hz generators
2. Less costly
3. Smaller
Back to the line compensator
The current also goes through the filament circuit
Travels to the step-down transformer (A to mA)
a. Used to decrease the voltage from the primary coil to the secondary coil
Current travels to cathode (negative side of tube)
a. Current is increased due to Ohms Law
i. Ohms Law = the current along a conductor is proportional to the potential
difference
ii. V = IR
iii. V = potential difference in volts
iv. I = current in amperes
v. R = resistance in ohms
b. Potentials difference = the force or strength of electron flow; also known as
electromotive force (emf)
c. As the current flows along the circuit, the potential difference is reduced because the
closer the electrons come to the deficient end of the circuit, the farther they are away
from the excess end (the driving source) and the closer they are to becoming part of the
deficiency themselves
d. Has 2 filament wires and a focusing cup
i. Filaments are coils of wire
1. Small and large filaments
a. Small is for better spatial resolution (detail)
i. Can handle less heat
b. Large is for large body parts
i. Can handle higher temperatures
ii. Focusing cup is a metal cup that the filaments are embedded into
1. It is negatively charged
2. Forces thermionically emitted electrons close together

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3. Electrons want to spread out bc of electrostatic law

4. Made of tungsten bc of high melting point (3410 degrees C)
5. X-ray tube current is dependent upon filament current
iii. Thermionic emission is the heating of the filament enough to cause outer-shell
electrons of tungsten atoms to be boiled off and ejected from filament
1. Electrons form cloud around filament
a. Focusing cup forces the together (electrostatic law)
b. Cloud is the space charge cloud
2. Space charge effect
a. Cloud of boiled off electrons prevent more electrons from
boiling off
b. Low kVp, high mAs technique causes space charge limitations
i. Can damage/ shorten tube life
3. Saturation current
a. mA cannot get any higher at given kVp
b. no more available electrons
15. Anode (positive side of tube)
a. Current travels to positive side of tube
i. Electrons flow from abundance to deficit
1. electrons congregate at the filament of the cathode (abundance) and
want to get to the deficit (anode)
b. Primary functions
i. Convert electronic energy into x-ray radiation
ii. Dissipate the heat created in the process
iii. Houses the target material
c. Called the target (area of anode struck by electrons)
i. Primarily made of tungsten
ii. High melting point
iii. Creates consistent high energy x-rays
iv. Easily dissipates heat
v. Withstands stress of spinning, expansion/ contraction
d. Rotating and stationary anodes
i. Rotating anodes increase target area that interacts with electrons
e. 1. Electrical conductor
i. Receives electrons from cathode, conducts them through to connecting cables
and back to high voltage generator
f. 2. Mechanical support for target
g. 3. Efficiently remove heat
h. Made of copper, molybdenum, or graphite
16. X-ray photons are produced when the high-speed electrons strike the anode target from the
cathode
17. Electrons that form the thermionic cloud around the filament arrive at anode target traveling at
half the speed of light
a. These incoming electrons are called incident electrons

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18. When incident electrons strike the target, they transfer their kinetic energy to the toms of the
target material, which produces x-ray photons
a. The greater the mass or speed of electrons, the greater the quantity and quality of
photons produced
19. 3 Target Interactions:
a. Heat Production
i. Over 99.8% of the kinetic energy of the electrons is converted to heat
ii. Kinetic energy of incident electrons increase, so does efficiency of photon
production
b. Bremsstrahlung Radiation:
i. Occurs when the incident electron interacts with the force field of the nucleus
ii. The force field causes the incident electron to slow down and diverts the
electron course
iii. The energy that is lost during braking is emitted as x-ray photons
iv. Bremsstrahlung photons are the difference between the entering and exiting
kinetic energy of the electron
v. At closer distances, more energy is lost, resulting in high Brems radiation
vi. Only when the incident electron loses all its excess kinetic energy would the
electron drift away to join the current flow
c. Characteristic Radiation:
i. Occurs when the incident electron interacts with an inner-shell electron
ii. Must have enough energy to knock an inner-shell electron from orbit
iii. Electron hole has been created in the inner-shell making the atom unstable
iv. Characteristic photons are the difference between the binding energy of the out
and inner shells between which the electron dropped
v. Characteristic cascade is when an electron has dropped to fill the hole another
electron will drop to fill the hole and so on
vi. Only electrons that drops into the K-shell will produce characteristic photons
within diagnostic range
20. Filtration (the process of eliminating undesirable low-energy x-ray photons by the insertion of
absorbing materials into the primary beam)
a. Reason for filtration:
i. The elimination of photons that would cause increased radiation does to the
patient but would not enhance the radiograph image
ii. Low-energy photons do not have enough energy to pass through the patient
and make any contribution to the image
1. Therefore, eliminating low-energy photons is desirable
b. Expressed numerically in terms of half-value layer (HVL)
i. HVL is that amount of absorbing material that will reduce the intensity of the
primary beam to one-half its original value
c. Types of filtration:
i. Inherent = results from the composition of the tube and housing
1. Examples: glass envelop of the tube
2. Dielectric oil that surrounds the tube

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ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

3. Glass window of the housing

Added = any filtration that occurs outside of the tube and housing and before
the image receptor
1. Example: collimator device
Compound = uses two or more materials that complement one another in their
absorbing abilities
1. Compound filters place higher atomic number material closer to the
tube and the lowest atomic number material closest to the patient
Compensating = designed to solve a problem involving unequal subject densities
1. Wedge
2. Trough
3. Thicker portions of the filter are match to the less dense patient body
parts
Total = the sum of inherent and added filtration

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