Stationary-source CT platform enabling combined CT-MRI
This technology redesigns the CT scanner by keeping the X-ray sources fixed in place on a stationary ring while only the detectors rotate around the patient. Traditional CT scanners spin both the source and detector together at high speed, which limits how fast you can image and forces higher radiation doses. By fixing the sources and spinning only the lighter detector array, the system can capture images faster and at lower dose. The architecture also integrates a second imaging modality — such as MRI, PET, or ultrasound — on a concentric ring, enabling simultaneous multi-modal scanning in a single machine.
What you could build
A next-generation combined imaging scanner — CT plus MRI or PET in one gantry — for hospital radiology and cardiology departments that need faster, lower-dose scans and simultaneous multi-modal data; primary buyers would be major hospital systems and radiology center networks, with secondary interest from medical device OEMs seeking to license the architecture.
Who in Virginia should care
Academic medical centers and hospital systems in Virginia (e.g., UVA Health, VCU Health, Inova) as potential clinical partners or early adopters; defense-adjacent interest from DARPA or military medical research given fast imaging utility in trauma settings.
Readiness: Prototype likely
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Ge Wang, Guohua Cao
- Granted
- December 27, 2022
- Status
- Granted patent
- Patent number
- 11534122
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.