Varslot, TrondKingston, AndrewSheppard, AdrianSakellariou, Arthur2015-12-101605-7422http://hdl.handle.net/1885/59124We have constructed a helical trajectory X-ray micro-CT system which enables high-resolution tomography within practical acquisition times. In the quest for ever-increasing resolution, lab-based X-ray micro-CT systems are limited by the spot size of the X-ray source. Unfortunately, decreasing the spot size reduces the X-ray flux, and therefore the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The reduced source flux can be offset by moving the detector closer to the source, thereby capturing a larger solid angle of the X-ray beam. We employ a helical scanning trajectory, accompanied by an exact reconstruction method to avoid the artifacts resulting from the use of large cone-angles with circular trajectories. In this paper, we present some challenges which arise when adopting this approach in a high-resolution cone-beam micro-CT system.Keywords: Acquisition time; Circular trajectory; Cone-beam micro-CT; Exact reconstruction; Filtered back-projection; Helical scanning; helical tomography; Helical trajectory; High resolution; High-resolution tomography; Micro CT; Solid angle; Source flux; Spot size exact reconstruction; filtered backprojection; helical tomography; X-ray tomography201010.1117/12.8602982016-02-24