Geometric model, control & calibration of universal benchtop CT system

A universal benchtop CT system has recently been developed and installed at GE Global Research. The system consists of a source, detector and phantom table that are mounted on a set of high accuracy motion stages. These stages permit positioning and orienting the source, detector and phantom with respect to each other. The benchtop system is thereby able to simulate any realistic clinical CT system geometry. This work provides a geometrical model of this benchtop system and illustrates how the stages need to be controlled in order to simulate a particular CT system. This illustrates at the same time the geometrical capabilities of the system. The method and first results of the geometrical calibration of the system are also shown.