Chinese researchers have developed what they describe as the world’s smallest CT scanner, a portable machine weighing just 6kg (13.2lbs) and designed to produce detailed images of small fossils, archaeological relics and other objects without damaging them.
Built by Shandong province-based Rayim, the Xtomo-Cube is about the size of a desktop speaker. Liu Baodong, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and general manager of Rayim, told the Science and Technology Daily on Monday that the device could be held in one hand and had earned the nickname “palm-sized CT scanner”.
The machine has a spatial resolution of 80 micrometres, roughly the width of a human hair, allowing it to analyse objects ranging from snail shells to medicine capsules, Liu said. Its power consumption is about 200 watts, meaning it can be powered by an ordinary portable power bank during fieldwork.
The device’s compact design represents a substantial reduction in size compared with conventional CT systems. According to the Science and Technology Daily, the previous record holder for the smallest CT machine was a German-developed device weighing 19kg. Liu said all the key components of the new scanner, including its X-ray source, rotating platform and detector, were developed and manufactured in China.
CT, or computed tomography, uses X-rays taken from multiple angles to reveal an object’s internal structure. A computer combines those images to produce a detailed three-dimensional model. The technology was first used clinically in 1971, when a CT scanner developed by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield was used on a patient in London to reveal a brain tumour. That machine was about 3 metres long and required roughly five minutes to produce a pair of two-dimensional images.
CT scanners are now routinely used in hospitals around the world to identify tumours, internal bleeding and other injuries or conditions. The technology is also used to examine fossils, archaeological finds and industrial components while leaving the objects intact.
Yet conventional CT equipment remains physically imposing. A typical hospital scanner is roughly 2 metres tall and wide and weighs around two tonnes (2.2 tons), while some industrial systems can be considerably larger and weigh several tonnes. The Xtomo-Cube instead compresses its principal components into a package of about four litres.
“There are probably more types of CT scanners than cars – sports cars, trucks, you name it,” Liu said. “This one is the compact car of the CT world. It’s not meant to scan everything; it’s designed to look inside small things.”
Beyond field research, Liu said the scanner’s small size and relatively low-energy X-rays could make it suitable for university classrooms and research laboratories. Unlike many commercial CT systems, its settings and raw imaging data are open to users, allowing students and researchers to examine how CT images are collected, reconstructed and improved.
The development therefore shifts the emphasis of CT imaging from large clinical and industrial installations towards a smaller, portable system intended specifically for examining objects that can be transported by hand.
