An X-ray tube that may include a cathode that is configured to generate an electron beam; an anode having a cavity that has an opening; wherein the anode is configured to receive the electron beam through the opening and to emit, through the opening, in response to the receiving of the electron beam, an X-ray beam from the opening; and electron optics that are configured to direct the electron beam towards the opening following a path that outside the cavity and in a vicinity of the opening, differs from a path of propagation the X-ray beam.

An x-ray target, x-ray source, and x-ray system are provided. The x-ray target includes a thermally conductive substrate comprising a surface and at least one structure on or embedded in at least a portion of the surface. The at least one structure includes a thermally conductive first material in thermal communication with the substrate. The first material has a length along a first direction parallel to the portion of the surface in a range greater than 1 millimeter and a width along a second direction parallel to the portion of the surface and perpendicular to the first direction. The width is in a range of 0.2 millimeter to 3 millimeters. The at least one structure further includes at least one layer over the first material. The at least one layer includes at least one second material different from the first material. The at least one layer has a thickness in a range of 2 microns to 50 microns. The at least one second material is configured to generate x-rays upon irradiation by electrons having energies in an energy range of 0.5 keV to 160 keV.

A system for x-ray analysis includes at least one x-ray source configured to emit x-rays. The at least one x-ray source includes at least one silicon carbide sub-source on or embedded in at least one thermally conductive substrate and configured to generate the x-rays in response to electron bombardment of the at least one silicon carbide sub-source. At least some of the x-rays emitted from the at least one x-ray source includes Si x-ray emission line x-rays. The system further includes at least one x-ray optical train configured to receive the Si x-ray emission line x-rays and to irradiate a sample with at least some of the Si x-ray emission line x-rays.

An x-ray target, x-ray source, and x-ray system are provided. The x-ray target includes a thermally conductive substrate comprising a surface and at least one structure on or embedded in at least a portion of the surface. The at least one structure includes a thermally conductive first material in thermal communication with the substrate. The first material has a length along a first direction parallel to the portion of the surface in a range greater than 1 millimeter and a width along a second direction parallel to the portion of the surface and perpendicular to the first direction. The width is in a range of 0.2 millimeter to 3 millimeters. The at least one structure further includes at least one layer over the first material. The at least one layer includes at least one second material different from the first material. The at least one layer has a thickness in a range of 2 microns to 50 microns. The at least one second material is configured to generate x-rays upon irradiation by electrons having energies in an energy range of 0.5 keV to 160 keV

There is provided an anode stack for cooling and electrically insulating a high voltage anode of an X-ray device. The anode stack has at least a conductor member and a dielectric member, and the conductor member has a main body and a peripheral portion. The dielectric member overlies and couples with the main body of the conductor member at one surface. At an opposing surface of the main body of the conductor member, an end of the high voltage anode is coupled thereto in use. The peripheral portion of the conductor member has an annular region that surrounds at least a part of the dielectric member and which is spaced therefrom.

The present disclosure relates to the production and use of a multi-layer X-ray source target. In certain implementations, layers of X-ray generating material may be interleaved with thermally conductive layers. To prevent delamination of the layers, various mechanical, chemical, and structural approaches are related, including approaches for reducing the internal stress associated with the deposited layers and for increasing binding strength between layers.

A multi-pixel x-ray source is provided. The x-ray source includes a plurality of transmission target assemblies. The transmission target assembly includes a tungsten target and a diamond substrate. The substrate includes a first transmission surface and a second transmission surface opposite first transmission surface. The substrate further includes a first side surface and a second side surface disposed between the first and second transmission surfaces. The target covers the first transmission surface of the substrate. The transmission target assembly further includes a base. The base surrounds the first and second side surfaces of substrate, exposing a collimator surface of the second transmission surface and the target. The transmission target assembly is configured to transmit x-ray generated by the target through the target and the substrate.

A target structure for generation of x-ray radiation may include a heat sink; and a target element for electrons to strike, the target element being in the heat sink to cool the target element, wherein the heat sink includes a metal-diamond composite material.

A method for performing x-ray absorption spectroscopy and an x-ray absorption spectrometer system to be used with a compact laboratory x-ray source to measure x-ray absorption of the element of interest in an object with both high spatial and high spectral resolution. The spectrometer system comprises a compact high brightness laboratory x-ray source, an optical train to focus the x-rays through an object to be examined, and a spectrometer comprising a single crystal analyzer (and, in some embodiments, also a mosaic crystal) to disperse the transmitted beam onto a spatially resolving x-ray detector. The high brightness/high flux x-ray source may have a take-off angle between 0 and 105 mrad. and be coupled to an optical train that collects and focuses the high flux x-rays to spots less than 500 micrometers, leading to high flux density. The coatings of the optical train may also act as a low-pass filter, allowing a predetermined bandwidth of x-rays to be observed at one time while excluding the higher harmonics.

The present invention is intended to provide improved patterned X-ray emitting targets as well as X-ray sources that include patterned X-ray emitting targets as well as X-ray reflectance scatterometry (XRS) systems and also including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) systems and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) systems which employ such X-ray emitting targets.