PORTABLE AND

MOBILE
RADIOGRAPHIC
UNIT

Presented by :
Dr Manjushree B M
Junior Resident
 Introduction
 Machines used for severely ill and unable
patients, who cannot be brought in the
radiology department.

 Can be broadly divided into two types:

 Portable and
 Mobile equipment.

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 Portable unit
 Portable - can be carried by one able bodied
person at a time.

 Can be taken around the hospital, some place

distant from hospital or even to a patient’s
home.

 Simple

 Can be dismantled for transfer.

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Fig: portable radiographic units then (1912)
and now

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 Components
1. Tube head:
(A) X-ray tube: Self-rectified, Stationary anode,
single focal spot of 1.0mm.

(B) High-tension generator:

 Tube and generator are enclosed in one oil
filled tank, described as tank construction and
the whole enclosure called the tube head.

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2. Tube stand:
 support for the tube head,

3. A small control unit:

 Rheostats: to vary the mA and kV.
 Timer (s).
 Exposure switches.

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Fig: Schematic diagram of components of portable unit

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Advantages
 permit radiographic examination in locations

limited by the availability of a standard electrical

supply.

Disadvantages
 Low output a typical maximum is 80 KVp at 15 mA

for 1 second.
 Difficult to maintain aspects of radiation protection.

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 Mobile
 Mobile means capable of being moved.

 Mounted on wheels with the motion brake

provided.

 Larger and heavier than portable sets and need

to be motorized or pushed by human power.

 Motorized units require less effort but add to

weight and cost of the unit.
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Fig: Mobile units in 1940-1955 and now.
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 Components
 Tube

 Tube stand

 High tension
transformer

 Control unit

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Tube:

 Dual focus rotating anode x ray tube .

 Focal spot
 About 1.0mm for fine focus
 2.0 mm for broad focus.

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Tube stand:

 A strong vertical column mounted on the base

that supports the cross arm which carries the x
ray tube.
 Range of movements:
 Can be split into five major components.
 To prevent damage to cables
movements should have mechanical stops.

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 Rotation around the centre of the column, (R)

 Cross arm movements the extension of the tube head away from the
centre of the column ,(A)

 Rotation around the axis of the cross arm, (D)

 Angulations across the long axis of the tube head,(B)

 Vertical movement up and down main column (H)

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High tension generator:
 Gives a max output of 300mA and 125KVp.

 Includes full wave rectification provided by

means of selenium rectifiers .

 The H.T. generator, its rectifiers and filament

transformer for tube enclosed in one oil filled
earthed steel tank.

 Connected to the x ray tube by means of high

tension cables.
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Control unit:

 Located behind the generator tank on the base

of unit.
 It consists:
 Mains on/off switch
 mAs selector
 kV selector
 Focal spot selection
 Body part selection
 Exposure indicator

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 Mobile classification
By two ways:
1. By power supply:
 Capacitor discharge unit

 Battery powered unit

2. By output:
 Low Power Mobiles: 10 to 30mA and 40 to 90

kVp.
 Average Power Mobiles:100 to 150 mA and 40-
95 kVp.
 High power mobiles : upto 300 mA and 125
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 Capacitor Discharge Mobile Unit
Principle:
 When charge circuit is activated, voltage from HTT

charges a capacitor up to the kilo voltage required for

the exposure.

 The capacitor becomes source of power for x ray

exposure. It is disconnected from the charging circuit
and connected to the x ray tube for exposure.

 Its discharge through tube constitutes the mAs of the

radiographic exposure factors.

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Fig : showing the working of capacitor discharge
unit
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 CONTD…

 When the charge button is pressed ,the capacitor is

charged through high tension source by connections
at G1andG2.

 when required kV is reached ,charging is

automatically stopped and the lamp indicates ready.

 After charging has stopped when exposure button is

pressed, capacitor is connected to tube at X1 and
X2.it discharges through the tube and constitutes the
x ray exposure.
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kV drop:
 In this design, the kV drop is around 1 kV per
mAS used and the effective voltage is 1/3 of
the voltage drop lower than the starting
voltage.
 Hence the equivalent kV=Starting kV-1/3 x
mAS
 Example for an exposure of 87Kv and 20mAS:
 87-(1/3 x 20)= 87-6.6 = 80Kv Effective.

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X-ray Tube: +
 Rotating anode tube with single focal spot size of
1.2mm and heat storage capacity of 80,000 HU.
Grid controlled:
 Uses a third electrode i.e. focusing cup to control
flow of electrons from filament to target.
 Voltage across filament-grid produces electric field
along path of electron beam that pushes e-s closer.
 Exposure start & stop controlled by voltage on grid.
 Large enough negative voltage on grid blocks tube
current from cathode to anode.

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 Control Unit
 Automatic charging circuit for charging the
capacitor.
 The kV range is from 30kv to 125kv. If pre selected
Kv is altered after charging, the tube voltage is
automatically adjusted to the new value.
 A single mAs control, rather than mA and
exposure time being selected separately. The units
are usually designed to operate at a high, fixed
mA value, so that exposure time becomes the main
variable by default.
 mAs control has 15 steps range from 2 mAs to 60
mAs.
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Advantages:
 less bulky and easily controllable.

 No need for special installations as power is only

required to charge the capacitor.

 The voltage waveform across x ray tube is uniform

rather than pulsating. It has no relationship with ac
mains.

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 Shorter exposure time by use of grid controller.

Limitations:
 Limited mAs output.

 The maximum output range is 30-50mAs so

cannot be used for heavy body part such as

spine and abdomen.

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 Battery Powered Mobile Unit
 Also called cord less mobile unit.
 Ni-Cd batteries are used as a source of energy for x
ray exposure .
 The generator is referred to as constant potential
generator (CPG).
 Power supply is used to charge the batteries.
 The batteries produces low voltage DC charge.

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Major Components of battery Powered
X Ray machine

3/26/2012 PORTABLE N MOBILE EQUIP BY SUD 27

IL
 Advantages

 Stores considerable energy to generate x rays.

can store 10,000 mAs.

 Make exposures independent of power supply.

 Supplies constant output of KV and mA

through out the exposure.

 Used in case of emergency power failure.

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Disadvantages

 Batteries must be charged

 Requires regular batteries maintenance

 Heavy

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Care and maintenance:

 The unit should be left connected to the mains

power supply of (200v or 115v):
– Every night. – During weekends.
– At all times when the unit is idle (not being
used).

 Naked flames or lighted cigarettes should not

be held near the batteries when they are being
charged.

 The acid level in the batteries should be

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 Mobile Image Intensifiers Units

 Used in operating theatre for fluoroscopy

examination.

 This reduces the number of radiographs taken and

saves the time during surgery.

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 Essential features of mobile unit for
fluoroscopy
 The x ray tube

 The image intensifier

 High tension generator

 Control consol

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The x ray tube and image intensifier:-
 Mounted opposite to each other at the end of C –arm.

 X ray tube head is at the lower end of C arm and the

image intensifier is at the upper end with input
phosphor facing towards the x ray tube.
 The tube head houses the x ray tube.
 The x ray tube is stationary anode and two focal spots.

 A small focal spot of size 0.6mm is used for

fluoroscopy and a large focal spot of size 1.8mm is
used for radiography.
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 The C arm is mounted on a cross arm which extend
from a carriage carried on a vertical support rising
from the control console.

 The x ray tube and the image intensifier are held

directly opposite to each other with x ray beam
permanently centered to the input phosphor.

 At the back of I.I. is the television pick up tube, so

that image can be viewed on monitor.

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 The input phosphor of the image intensifier is
cesium iodide which gives good contrast.

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 Movements

 The vertical support can be raised and lowered

and the cross arm can be extended through the
carriage.

 The x ray tube and image intensifier are attached

to the c arm and move together.

 The c arm can be moved in any direction. so the

equipment enables a good range of positions and
projections to be used without wastage of time.
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 High tension generator:

 The x ray tube and high tension generator are

together in the tube head.

 High tension generator are single phase with full

wave rectification provided by silicon rectifiers i.e.
the generator is two pulse.

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Fig: Block diagram of sequence of transference of signal

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Control unit :
 Kilovoltage for fluoroscopy or radiography

range from 50kv to 105kv.

 mA settings or fluoroscopy range from 0.1to

3.0mA.for radiography the Kv and mA are
linked .i.e.
 50mA at 55kv
 40mA at 80 Kv
 30mA at 105 Kv

 The timer for radiographic exposure is

electronic and gives range from 0.1 to 3.0 sec.
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 For the television chain, circuit includes controls
which allow the image to be transposed right to left
and inverted top to bottom.

 There is control for memory circuit with two

magnetic disc that is image storage is possible.

 There is facility for pulsed fluoroscopy with

electronic selector: the rates provided vary from 1
flash per sec to 1 flash every 5 sec.
 This allows to monitor dynamic events without
subjecting the patient to continuous radiation.
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 Advancements
 High frequency generator mobile units

 Computed radiography mobile x ray unit

 Direct radiography mobile x ray unit

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 High Frequency Generator
 Recently high frequency generators are more
popular for use in radiology for
mammography and mobile units.

 One of significant advantages is its compact

design.

 Converts low frequency (60 HZ) to high

frequency (KHZ) pulsed DC, by altering
waveform of incoming electrical circuit which
is subsequently increased to kilovolts, rectified
and sent to the x-ray tube.
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 Produces a nearly constant voltage wave form
with extremely low ripple(<1%).

 Provides great x-ray quality(effective energy)

and quantity. More efficient.
 More expensive than previous mobile units.

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 Uses inverter circuit.
 The DC power supply
produces a constant voltage
from either a single phase
or three phase input line
source.
 inverter circuit creates the
high frequency AC
waveform.
 This AC current supplies
the high voltage
transformer and creates a
waveform of fixed high
voltage and corresponding 45
 After rectification and smoothing two high
voltage capacitor on the secondary circuits
accumulates electron charges. These capacitors
produce a voltage across the x-ray tube, that
depends upon the accumulated charges

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Fig: Block diagram of high frequency generator

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Mobile CR

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Digital portable unit

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Construction

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 Includes a transport case housing several
components, a digital x-ray image sensor and
x-ray generator.
 A pt. support unit is disposed b/w image
sensor and x-ray generator.
 An image display unit is connected to image
acquisition unit and spaced from generator.

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 The image sensor is a thin film transistor (TFT)
based digital x-ray image sensor. Preferably,
digital image sensor is about the same size as
standard medical x-ray films. The sensors can
be grouped into two categories:
 1)indirect x-ray sensors
 2) direct x-ray sensors

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 indirect x-ray sensors: feature a TFT
photodiode array that is sensitive to visible
light. These sensors are covered by an x-ray to
light converter such as gadolinium oxysulfide
or cesium iodide which converts each incident
x-ray photon into light photons. The light
photons are converted into electronic charge at
each pixel photodiode.

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 direct x-ray sensors: is coated with amorphous
selenium which converts incident x-rays
directly into electronic charge at each pixel.

 In both cases electronic charge distribution

collected by pixel array is proportional to
intensity distribution of x-ray photons. This
charge distribution is digitized and stored in a
computer.

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 In order to display images
generated by image sensor
image display unit is
provided with software
that at least supports
images in DICOM and
JPEG format.

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Table : Tube parameters of digital portable

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 Digital mobiles
 The digital mobile units are the ultimate
solution to mobile X-ray imaging for
digitization in ER, traumatology, intensive care
units (ICU), in patient wards and pediatrics.

 The system represents an evolutionary move in

mobile diagnostic imaging equipment and
includes unique features in terms of
operability, mobility and image quality.

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 The system meets today’s and future clinical
demands providing the premium solution for

 immediate image processing

 an efficient clinical workflow

 a rapid display of high-quality clinical images

 fast integration into the hospital network

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Digital mobile units

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 Features

 Generator: High frequency generator

 Kvp Range: 40 - 100 Kvp, adjustable in 1 kV increments

 mA range: Fixed, 15 mA and 30 mA

 mAs Range: 0.15 – 120 mAs

 Exposure Time: 0.01 - 4.00 s

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 Indicators: Digital display of kVp, mAs and
Time, X-Ray, Ready, mA Station and Fault
Indicators

 Exposure Switch: Detachable two position switch

 X-Ray Tube: Stationary Anode

Filtration-2.7 mm aluminum
Target Material: Tungsten
Anode Capacity: 30,000 HU
Storage
Focal Spot: 1.0 mm
Target Angle: 15 degree.

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Thank you
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