Planar-gate zinc oxide nanowire cold cathode flat-panel X-ray source for tomosynthesis imaging

Static CT imaging requires a compact X-ray source capable of spatially addressable emission without mechanical motion while maintaining stable spectral characteristics. Here, we develop a vacuum-sealed planar-gate ZnO nanowire cold cathode flat panel X-ray source (FPXS) that enables 32 independently addressable emission units. Experimentally, unit-selective luminescence imaging and anode current-gate voltage (I_a-V_g) characteristics showing a monotonic increase verify a reliable gate-controlled addressing function. The device achieves a maximum I_a of 46.3 μA and an X-ray dose rate of 57.8 μGy/s from four addressable units. In addition, unit-by-unit addressable projection imaging is demonstrated, and preliminary tomosynthesis reconstruction using the coded array beam X-ray imaging (CABI) algorithm shows that structural details can be recovered from the addressed projection data. This work establishes a planar-gate cold cathode FPXS imaging installation for encodable X-ray generation by gate driving and highlights its potential for high-speed, high-resolution static CT imaging.