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Optical fiber readout of scintillator arrays using a multi-channel PMT: a high resolution PET detector for animal imaging

1996; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Volume: 43; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1109/23.507249

1558-1578

Simon R. Cherry, Yiping Shao, Stefan Siegel, Robert W. Silverman, E.U. Mumcuoglu, K. Meadors, Michael E. Phelps,

Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research

The authors report the results from a new high resolution gamma ray imaging detector designed for use in a positron emission tomography (PET) system dedicated to small animal imaging. The detectors consist of an 8/spl times/8 array of 2/spl times/2/spl times/10 mm bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals coupled by 2 mm diameter double clad optical fibers to a 64 pixel multi-channel photomultiplier tube (MC-PMT). A charge division readout board is used to convert the 64 output channels into four position sensitive signals which determine the crystal of interaction. Measurements with a pair of these detectors demonstrate an intrinsic spatial resolution of 1.4 mm, a coincidence timing resolution of 15 ns and an energy resolution ranging between 35 and 60%. Based on these encouraging results, the design for a dedicated animal PET tomograph is proposed and simulations of this system project a reconstructed resolution of less than 2 mm within a 5 cm diameter transaxial field of view.