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Sci—Thur PM: YIS — 03: Design and Performance Evaluation of Detector Modules for Positron Emission Mammography Imagers
Author(s) -
Cuddy SG,
Green D,
Reznik A,
Rowlands JA,
Taghibakhsh F
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.3476098
Subject(s) - silicon photomultiplier , scintillator , lyso , detector , photodetector , scintillation , optics , physics , optoelectronics , image resolution , medical physics
Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) is a valuable molecular imaging technique used to visualize to both invasive and pre‐invasive lesions in the breast. While maintaining spatial resolution of 1–2 mm, a reduction of patient dose is required in order to use PEM in clinical metastatic cancer prevention studies. We are working to enable depth of interaction (DOI) measurements using a detector module design with photodetectors on either end of a scintillation crystal array to allow for increased detection efficiency. While typical dual‐ended readout designs couple one photodetector to either end of one crystal, we propose reducing readout requirements by enlarging the photodetectors such that one detector may readout one end of multiple scintillators. We simulated a dual‐ended detector module with photodetectors appropriately sized for 4 detectors to readout each end of a 3×3, 5×5, and 6×6 scintillation crystal array. Our work found that detector modules can accommodate up to 5×5 scintillators while achieving accurate crystal index identification and depth of interaction resolution of 1.33 mm. Based on this optimization, a detector module was assembled for both the single‐ and dual‐ended readout configurations using a 6×6 LYSO scintillation crystal array coupled to a 4×4 SiPM array. We successfully resolved all 36 scintillators in the single‐ended configuration verifying that large sized SiPM pixels may be used to accurately identify smaller pixelated scintillators. We are continuing this work for the dual‐ended configuration.