Abstract: A novel type of X-ray tube, a high-tech device for intelligent safety inspection and intelligent surveillance, has been successfully developed.The structures of key components, including the high voltage unit, electron beam focusing unit and heat sink unit, were designed via theoretical analysis, numerical simulation with LORENTZ software, and experimental evaluation for the design optimization.The prototyped X-ray tube was tested at 200 kV with a China-made intelligent X-ray inspection system.The results show that the newly-developed X-ray tube meets the stringent design requirements.To be specific, operating at 200 kV,the smallest X-ray spot-size was estimated to be within 0.4 mm×0.4 mm; in the realistic operation environment, the mean time between failure was measured to be over 15000 h.Moreover, the novel X-ray tube outperforms the commercial one because of higher resolution, deeper penetration depth, better reliability and greater stability.