Lateral (xy) direction balanced flying focal spot helical cone-beam CT algorithm

The resolution of an X-ray CT system can be increased by employing a flying focal spot (FFS) X-ray tube. It can be increased in both the axial (z) direction and the lateral (xy) direction by deflecting the focal spot appropriately in the given directions. The goal of this work is to develop a lateral flying focal spot algorithm which can be implemented in native cone-beam geometry, without the need for rebinning, resorting, or resampling. The result is a new algorithm using a "balanced" flying focal spot configuration. The balanced xy FFS algorithm achieves uniform xy resolution across the field of view by deflecting the focal spot so the source stays in the same position for both views. Since the source is in the same position for both views, channel data will interlace perfectly without the need for resorting, rebinning, or resampling.