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US 10,088,580 B2Granted
Detector systems for radiation imaging
AssigneeMinnesota Imaging and Engineering LLC
InventorsRobert Sigurd Nelson, William Bert Nelson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Detector designs and systems for enhanced radiographic imaging with integrated detector systems incorporate one or more of Compton and nuclear medicine imaging, PET imaging and x-ray CT imaging capabilities. Detector designs employ one or more layers of detector modules comprised of edge-on or face-on detectors or a combination of edge-on and face-on detectors which may employ gas, scintillator, semiconductor, low temperature (such as Ge and superconductor) and structured detectors. Detectors may implement tracking capabilities and may operate in a non-coincidence or coincidence detection mode.
Claims30
An imaging apparatus comprising:
- a front-end detector layer comprising a first array of radiation detector modules configured to image a region of interest within an object;
- a back-end detector layer comprising a second array of radiation detector modules configured to image the region of interest within the object;
- detector electronics configured for tracking interactions in the first and second arrays of radiation detector modules using temporal and energy resolution techniques;
- and
- a communications link to a computer imaging system configured to image the region of interest within the object by processing readout data from the detector electronics;
- wherein the front-end and back-end detector layers have temporal and spatial resolution adapted for imaging the region of interest by tracking the interactions from at least one of an x-ray and a gamma radiation source;
- and
- wherein the detector modules in the first array have an edge-on geometry in which at least one of x-ray and gamma radiation are incident upon an edge of a generally planar detector area, the edge having a detector thickness defining an entrance aperture for the radiation and the generally planar area defining an attenuation distance therein.
5 more elements
An imaging apparatus comprising:
- a front-end detector layer comprising a first array of radiation detector modules configured to image a region of interest within an object;
- a back-end detector layer comprising a second array of radiation detector modules configured to image the region of interest within the object;
- detector electronics configured for tracking interactions in the first and second arrays of radiation detector modules using temporal and energy resolution techniques;
- and
- a communications link to a computer imaging system configured to image the region of interest within the object by processing readout data from the detector electronics;
- wherein the front-end and back-end detector layers have temporal and spatial resolution adapted for imaging the region of interest by tracking the interactions from at least one of an x-ray and a gamma radiation source;
- wherein adjacent detector modules in the front-end and back-end detector layers are tilted with respect to one another to achieve a focused detector geometry with respect to diverging radiation from the at least one source, with the adjacent detector modules in the back-end detector layer offset to fill gaps between the adjacent modules in the front-end detector layer and define a substantially continuous detector configuration.
4 more elements
An imaging apparatus comprising:
- a front-end detector layer comprising a first array of radiation detector modules configured to image a region of interest within an object;
- a back-end detector layer comprising a second array of radiation detector modules configured to image the region of interest within the object;
- detector electronics configured for tracking interactions in the first and second arrays of radiation detector modules using temporal and energy resolution techniques;
- and
- a communications link to a computer imaging system configured to image the region of interest within the object by processing readout data from the detector electronics;
- wherein the front-end and back-end detector layers have temporal and spatial resolution adapted for imaging the region of interest by tracking the interactions from at least one of an x-ray and a gamma radiation source;
- and
- wherein the detector modules in at least one of the first array and the second array are pixelated to define pixel columns having non-uniform pixel size, and wherein pixel length within the pixel columns increases with increasing depth.
5 more elements
A radiation imaging system comprising:
- at least first and second layers of detector modules with temporal, spatial and energy resolution adapted to image a region of interest within a body;
- detector electronics configured for detecting interactions of radiation in the at least first and second layers of detector modules;
- and
- a communication link to a computer imaging system configured to image the region of interest by tracking the interactions in the at least first and second layers of detector modules;
- wherein the detector modules have at least one of different temporal resolution and different spatial resolution in the first and second layers;
- and
- a partial ring or planar front-end CT or tomosynthesis detector including the first layer of detector modules and a partial ring or planar back-end PET detector including the second layer of detector modules.
4 more elements
A method of operating a radiation imaging system having at least first and second layers of detector modules with at least one of different temporal, spatial and energy resolution adapted to image a region of interest within a body, the method comprising:
- utilizing detector electronics configured for detecting interactions from at least one radiation source in each of the at least first and second layers of detector modules;
- tracking the interactions in each of the at least first and second layers of detector modules;
- communicating readout data from the detector electronics to a computer imaging system;
- and
- imaging the region of interest with the computer imaging system, based on the tracking of the interactions from the at least one radiation source with the different resolution in each of the at least first and second layers of detector modules;
- wherein the different resolution of the at least first and second layers of detector modules is selected for tracking the interactions from both x-rays and gamma rays;
- operating the radiation imaging system as a PET camera and x-ray CT or tomosynthesis imaging system;
- and
- operating the first layer of detector modules as part of a front-end CT or tomosynthesis detector and operating the second layer of detector modules as part of back-end PET detector.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.