SiliPET: An ultra high resolution design of a small animal PET scanner based on double sided silicon strip detector stacks (original) (raw)

SiliPET: An ultra-high resolution design of a small animal PET scanner based on stacks of double-sided silicon strip detector

Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A-accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2007

We investigated with Monte Carlo simulations, using the EGSNrcMP code, the capabilities of a small animal PET scanner based on four stacks of double-sided silicon strip detectors. Each stack consists of 40 silicon detectors with dimension of 60 Â 60 Â 1 mm 3 and 128 orthogonal strips on each side. Two coordinates of the interaction are given by the strips, whereas the third coordinate is given by the detector number in the stack. The stacks are arranged to form a box of 5 Â 5 Â 6 cm 3 with minor sides opened; the box represents the minimal FOV of the scanner. The performance parameters of the SiliPET scanner have been estimated giving a (positron range limited) spatial resolution of 0.52 mm FWHM, and an absolute sensitivity of 5.1% at the center of system. Preliminary results of a proof of principle measurement done with the MEGA advanced Compton imager using a E1 mm diameter 22 Na source, showed a focal ray tracing FWHM of 1 mm. r

A prototype of very high-resolution small animal PET scanner using silicon pad detectors

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2007

A very high resolution small animal positron emission tomograph (PET) which can achieve submillimeter spatial resolution is being developed using silicon pad detectors. The prototype PET for a single slice instrument consists of two 1 mm thick silicon pad detectors, each containing a 32 × 16 array of 1.4 mm × 1.4 mm pads read out with four VATAGP3 chips which have 128 channels lownoise self triggering ASIC in each chip, coincidence units, a source turntable and tungsten slice collimator. The silicon detectors were located edgewise on opposite sides of a 4 cm field-of-view to maximize efficiency. Energy resolution is dominated by electronic noise, which is 0.98% (1.38 keV) FWHM at 140.5 keV. Coincidence timing resolution is 82.1 ns FWHM and coincidence efficiency was measured to be 1.04 × 10-3 % from two silicon detectors with annihilation photons of 18 F source Image data were acquired and reconstructed using conventional 2-D filtered-back projection (FBP) and a maximum likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) method. Image resolution of approximately 1.45 mm FWHM is obtained from 1-D profile of 1.1 mm diameter 18 F line source image. Even better resolution can be obtained with smaller detector element sizes. While many challenges remain in scaling up the instrument to useful efficiency including densely packed detectors and significantly improved timing resolution, performance of the test setup in terms of easily achieving submillimeter resolution is compelling.

A High-Resolution PET Demonstrator using a Silicon “Magnifying Glass”

Physics Procedia, 2012

To assist ongoing investigations of the limits of the tradeoff between spatial resolution and noise in PET imaging, several PET instruments based on silicon-pad detectors have been developed. The latest is a segment of a dual-ring device to demonstrate that excellent reconstructed image resolution can be achieved with a scanner that uses highresolution detectors placed close to the object of interest or surrounding a small field-of-view in combination with detectors having modest resolution at larger radius. The outer ring of our demonstrator comprises conventional BGO block detectors scavenged from a clinical PET scanner and located at a 500mm radius around a 50mm diameter fieldof-view. The inner detector-in contrast to the high-Z scintillator typically used in PET-is based on silicon-pad detectors located at 70mm nominal radius. Each silicon detector has 512 1.4mm x 1.4mm x 1mm detector elements in a 16 x 32 array and is read out using VATA GP7 ASICs (Gamma Medica-Ideas, Northridge, CA). Even though virtually all interactions of 511 keV annihilation photons in silicon are Compton-scatter, both high spatial resolution and reasonable sensitivity appears possible. The system has demonstrated resolution of ~0.7mm FWHM with Na-22 for coincidences having the highest intrinsic resolution (silicon-silicon) and 5-6mm FWHM for the lowest resolution BGO-BGO coincidences. Spatial resolution for images reconstructed from the mixed silicon-BGO coincidences is ~1.5mm FWHM demonstrating the "magnifying-glass" concept.

A feasibility study of PETiPIX: an ultra high resolution small animal PET scanner

PETiPIX is an ultra high spatial resolution positron emission tomography (PET) scanner designed for imaging mice brains. Four Timepix pixellated silicon detector modules are placed in an edge-on configuration to form a scanner with a field of view (FoV) 15 mm in diameter. Each detector module consists of 256×256 pixels with dimensions of 55×55×300 µm 3 . Monte Carlo simulations using GEANT4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the PETiPIX design, including estimation of system sensitivity, angular dependence, spatial resolution (point source, hot and cold phantom studies) and evaluation of potential detector shield designs. Initial experimental work also established that scattered photons and recoil electrons could be detected using a single edge-on Timepix detector with a positron source. Simulation results estimate a spatial resolution of 0.26 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) at the centre of FoV and 0.29 mm FWHM overall spatial resolution with sensitivity of 0.01%, and indicate that a 1.5 mm thick tungsten shield parallel to the detectors will absorb the majority of non-coplanar annihilation photons, significantly reducing the rates of randoms. Results from the simulated phantom studies demonstrate that PETiPIX is a promising design for studies demanding high resolution images of mice brains.

Design of a very high-resolution small animal PET scanner using a silicon scatter detector insert

Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2007

A small animal positron emission tomography (PET) instrument using a high-resolution solid-state detector insert in a conventional PET system was investigated for its potential to achieve sub-millimeter spatial resolution for mouse imaging. Monte Carlo simulations were used to estimate the effect of detector configurations (thickness, length and radius) on sensitivity. From this initial study, a PET system having an inner cylindrical silicon detector (4 cm ID, 4 cm length and 1.6 cm thickness composed of 16 layers of 300 µm × 300 µm × 1 mm pads), for scattering, surrounded by an outer cylindrical BGO scintillation detector (17.6 cm ID, 16 cm length and 2 cm thickness segmented into 3 mm × 3 mm × 20 mm crystals), for capture was evaluated in detail. In order to evaluate spatial resolution, sensitivity and image quality of the PET system, 2D images of multiple point and cylinder sources were reconstructed with the simulation data including blurring from positron range and annihilation photon acollinearity using filtered backprojection (FBP). Simulation results for 18 F demonstrate 340 µm FWHM at the center of the field of view with 1.0% sensitivity from the coincidence of single scattering events in both silicon detectors and 1.0 mm FWHM with 9.0% sensitivity from the coincidence of single scattering in the silicon and full energy absorption of the second photon in the BGO detector.

Design of a small animal PET imaging system with 1 microliter volume resolution

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2004

The design of a new scanner for use in small animal PET imaging is described. The goal is to achieve 1 mm FWHM resolution in each of three orthogonal directions throughout a volume suitable for whole body mouse imaging, roughly 40 mm diameter 80 mm long. Simultaneously, the design should achieve a sensitivity of greater than 5% of all decays from a point source located at the center of the scanner.

Development of an ultrahigh resolution Si-PM based PET system for small animals

Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2013

Since a high resolution PET system is needed for small animal imaging, especially for mouse studies, we developed a new small animal PET system that decreased the size of the scintillators to less than 1 mm. Our developed PET system used 0.5 × 0.7 × 5 mm 3 LYSO pixels arranged in an 11 × 13 matrix to form a block with a 0.1 mm BaSO 4 reflector between the pixels. Two LYSO blocks were optically coupled to two optical fiber based angled image guides. These LYSO blocks and image guides were coupled to a Si-PM array (Hamamatsu MPPC S11064-050P) to form a block detector. Eight block detectors (16 LYSO blocks) were arranged in a 34 mm inner diameter ring to form a small animal PET system. The block detector showed good separation for the 22 × 13 LYSO pixels in the two-dimensional position histogram. The energy resolution was 20% full-with at half-maximum (FWHM) for 511 keV gamma photons. The transaxial resolution reconstructed by filtered backprojection was 0.71 to 0.75 mm FWHM and the axial resolution was 0.70 mm. The point source sensitivity was 0.24% at the central axial fieldof-view. High resolution mouse images were obtained using our PET system. The developed ultrahigh resolution PET system showed attractive images for small animal studies and has a potential to provide new findings in molecular imaging researches.

An integrated PET–SPECT imager for small animals

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2001

We have built the YAP-PET tomograph: an integrated PET-SPECT imager for performing in vivo studies on new radiopharmaceuticals and tumor therapy evaluation in small animals. The field of view is 4 cm axially and 4 cm in diameter. The scanner is made of four detector modules that can rotate up to 3608. Each detector is composed of a YAP:Ce matrix (20 Â 20 match like crystals of dimensions 2 Â 2 Â 30 mm 3 ) coupled to a position-sensitive photomultiplier (Hamamatsu R2486-06). Two opposite detectors are equipped with high-resolution lead collimators (0.6 mm hexagonal holes, 0.15 mm septa thickness, and 20 mm thick). The collimators are easily mountable and removable from the detector heads, so as to obtain a two-head PET combined with a two-head SPECT, or a four-head PET scanner. #

Development and Performance Evaluation of a High-Sensitivity Positron Emission Tomography Scanner Dedicated for Small-Animal Imaging

2008

Developing a dedicated small-animal positron emission tomography (μPET) system of high sensitivity presents an important challenge. To address this challenge, we investigate a non-conventional design strategy for developing PET systems in which the hardware and software components of the system are synergistically combined in such a way that the certain limitations of the hardware design are overcome by reconstruction. Employing this design concept, we develop a prototype that employs two off-the-shelf detector panels having large area and high intrinsic detection efficiency in a compact geometry for achieving high sensitivity. Resolution degradations associated with the compact scanner design, on the other hand, is corrected for by using an well-established image reconstruction algorithm. We show that our prototype can generate a central sensitivity of ~30% and an image resolution of ~1.2 mm. Over the typical ranges of radioactivity currently used for conducting FDG-PET imaging of ...

An integrated PET-SPECT small animal imager: preliminary results

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2000

We have successfully built and characterised a small animal PET based on 4 rotating detectors with a spatial resolution <: 2 mm over its field of view and a sensitivity of 640 cps/pCi at the centre. The scanner is based on four matrices of 400 YAP:Ce finger crystals ( 2 x 2~3 0 mm3 each) coupled to Position Sensitive PhotoMultipliers (Hamamatsu We have now applied two high resolution collimators to two opposite detectors, hence realising an integrated PET-SPECT scanner for small animals. The collimators are made of lead with 20 mm long, 0.6 mm hexagonal holes with 0.15 mm septa. The read-out and data acquisition system are handled by NIM-CAMAC standard electronics. The Field Of View (FOV) of the tomograph has a diameter of 4 cm and an axial length of 4 cm in both PET and SPECT configuration which is appropriate for mice and rat studies. R2486-06.) 1.

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