Methods and systems for predicting failures in X-ray tubes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10753969-B2
Application number	US-201815953089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 13, 2018
Priority date	Apr 13, 2018
Publication date	Aug 25, 2020
Grant date	Aug 25, 2020

Abstract

The present approach relates to generating one or both of a failure prediction indication for an X-ray tube or a remaining useful life estimate for the X-ray tube. In one implementation, a trained static tube model is used in estimating health (e.g., thickness) of the electron emitter of the X-ray tube, which in turn may be used in predicting remaining useful life of an electron emitter of the X-ray tube.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for assessing health of an X-ray tube, comprising:
acquiring data points for a respective X-ray tube installed in an imaging system over time;
processing the data points using a trained X-ray tube model to calculate an estimated emitter drive current or estimated X-ray tube current over time;
calculating a trending indicator over time based on the estimated emitter drive current or estimated X-ray tube current;
calculating a slope of the trending indicator over time;
calculating a combined indicator using the trending indicator, wherein the combined indicator is calculated using the trending indicator and the slope of the trending indicator; and
providing an indication of X-ray tube health derived from the combined indicator.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the indication comprises:
evaluating the combined indicator over time against one or more failure criteria; and
generating a failure notification in response to a respective failure criterion being met by the combined indicator.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the failure notification comprises a number of days until estimated X-ray tube failure.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the indication comprises:
applying a transformation to the combined indicator or a smoothed version of the combined indicator; and
based on the transformation, providing an indication of the remaining life of the X-ray tube.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying and removing outliers in the trending indicator prior to performing slope calculation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the slope comprises performing linear regression of the tending indicator against time.

7. A method for training an X-ray tube model, comprising:
acquiring training data points for a respective X-ray tube after installation of the X-ray tube in an imaging system;
calculating a regression model using the training data points to derive respective values for a plurality of coefficients; and
constructing the X-ray tube model using the plurality of coefficients, wherein the X-ray tube model returns an estimate of electron emitter drive current or X-ray tube current in response to input data points.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the X-ray tube model comprises a model relating X-ray tube voltage and electron emitter current with X-ray tube current.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein acquiring data points comprises discarding an initial portion of the data points.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the X-ray tube model is constructed separately for each size of emitter.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the training data points are characterized by mA-kV settings for each respective training data point.

12. A processor-based system, comprising:
a non-transitory memory configured to store executable routines; and
a processing component configured to execute the routines stored in the non-transitory memory, wherein the routines, when executed, cause acts to be performed comprising:
acquiring data points related to operation of an X-ray tube over time;
processing the data points using a trained X-ray tube model to calculate an estimated emitter drive current or estimated X-ray tube current over time;
calculating a trending indicator over time based on the estimated emitter drive current or estimated X-ray tube current;
calculating a slope of the trending indicator over time;
calculating a combined indicator based on the trending indicator, wherein the combined indicator is calculated using the trending indicator and the slope of the trending indicator; and
providing an indication of X-ray tube health derived from the combined indicator.

13. The processor-based system of claim 12 , wherein providing the indication comprises:
evaluating the combined indicator over time against one or more failure criteria; and
generating a failure notification in response to a respective failure criterion being met by the combined indicator.

14. The processor-based system of claim 13 , wherein the failure notification comprises a number of days until estimated X-ray tube failure.

15. The processor-based system of claim 12 , wherein providing the indication comprises:
applying a transformation to the combined indicator or a smoothed version of the combined indicator; and
based on the transformation, providing an indication of the remaining life of the X-ray tube.

16. The processor-based system of claim 12 , wherein calculating the slope comprises performing linear regression of the tending indicator against time.

17. The processor-based system of claim 12 , wherein the routines, when executed, cause acts to be performed further comprising:
identifying and removing outliers in the trending indicator prior to performing slope calculation.

18. The processor-based system of claim 12 , wherein one or both of the non-transitory memory and processing component are provided in an X-ray controller or system controller of the X-ray tube based imaging system.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Xu Rui
• Wiedmann Uwe
• Unnikrishnan Jayakrishnan

Classifications

• H05G1/54 Primary

  Protecting {or lifetime prediction}(overload protection combined with control H05G1/46) · CPC title

• H01J35/025

  X-ray tubes with structurally associated circuit elements · CPC title

• G01R31/257 Primary

  Testing of beam-tubes, e.g. cathode-ray tubes, image pick-up tubes (of channel image intensifier arrays G01R31/252; of transit time tubes G01R31/255) · CPC title