Back to results
US 12,449,554 B2Granted
Scintillator detectors and methods for positron emission tomography
AssigneeCintilight, LLC
InventorsPhilipp Braeuninger-Weimer, Chad E. Seaver, Ronald Grazioso, Simon Philip Jelley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A positron emission tomography (PET) scanner includes a plurality of gamma radiation detector modules arranged to form a detector ring. Each detector module includes an array of scintillator detectors. Each scintillator detector comprises a monolithic scintillation crystal and a plurality of photodetector arrays, such as silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). A photodetector array is positioned on at least two nonparallel faces of each scintillation crystal. In some examples, a photodetector array is positioned on each of three orthogonal faces of each scintillation crystal.
Claims14
A gamma radiation scintillator detector comprising:
- a cuboid monolithic scintillator with six faces, including a first end-face to receive a gamma photon, a second end-face opposing the first end-face, and four lateral faces, including a first lateral face opposing a third lateral face and a second lateral face opposing a fourth lateral face;
- arrays of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) on only three orthogonal faces of the scintillator, including:
- a first two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the second end-face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a second two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the first lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a third two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the second lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- reflective material positioned on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator without an array of SiPMs, including reflective material on at least the first end-face, the third lateral face, and the fourth lateral face, such that each face with an array of SiPMs is opposed by a face with reflective material;
- a position module to calculate location information of a scintillation event based on detection signals from the SiPM arrays on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator;
- a processing circuit comprising:
- a first timing channel to generate a first side event timing signal for the second end-face based on combined detection signals from the first two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- a second timing channel to generate a second side event timing signal for the first lateral face based on combined detection signals from the second two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- and
- a third timing channel to generate a third side event timing signal for the second lateral face based on combined detection signals from the third two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- and
- a time correction module to adjust the first, second, and third side event timing signals based on the calculated location information of the scintillation event, thereby generating:
- a first adjusted side event timing signal for the second end-face;
- a second adjusted side event timing signal for the first lateral face;
- and
- a third adjusted side event timing signal for the second lateral face.
15 more elements
A gamma radiation detector module comprising an array of scintillator detectors, wherein each scintillator detector includes:
- a cuboid monolithic scintillator with six faces, including a first end-face to receive a gamma photon, a second end-face opposing the first end-face, and four lateral faces, including a first lateral face opposing a third lateral face and a second lateral face opposing a fourth lateral face;
- photodetector arrays on only three orthogonal faces of the scintillator, including:
- a first two-dimensional array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) on the second end-face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a second two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the first lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a third two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the second lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- reflective material positioned on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator without a photodetector array, including reflective material on at least the first end-face, the third lateral face, and the fourth lateral face, such that each face with an array of SiPMs is opposed by a face with reflective material;
- a position module to calculate location information of a scintillation event based on detection signals from the photodetector arrays on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator;
- a processing circuit comprising:
- a first timing channel to generate a first side event timing signal for the second end-face based on combined detection signals from the first two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- a second timing channel to generate a second side event timing signal for the first lateral face based on combined detection signals from the second two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- and
- a third timing channel to generate a third side event timing signal for the second lateral face based on combined detection signals from the third two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- and
- a time correction module to adjust the first, second, and third side event timing signals based on the calculated location information of the scintillation event, thereby generating:
- a first adjusted side event timing signal for the second end-face;
- a second adjusted side event timing signal for the first lateral face;
- and
- a third adjusted side event timing signal for the second lateral face.
15 more elements
A positron emission tomography (PET) scanning system, comprising:
- a plurality of gamma radiation detector modules, wherein each detector module comprises an array of scintillator detectors, each of which includes:
- a cuboid monolithic scintillator with six faces, including a first end-face to receive a gamma photon, a second end-face opposing the first end-face, and four lateral faces, including a first lateral face opposing a third lateral face and a second lateral face opposing a fourth lateral face;
- photodetector arrays on only three orthogonal faces of the scintillator, including:
- a first two-dimensional array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) on the second end-face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a second two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the first lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- a third two-dimensional array of SiPMs on the second lateral face of the monolithic scintillator;
- reflective material positioned on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator without a photodetector array, including reflective material on at least the first end-face, the third lateral face, and the fourth lateral face, such that each face with an array of SiPMs is opposed by a face with reflective material;
- a position module to calculate location information of a scintillation event based on detection signals from the photodetector arrays on the three orthogonal faces of the scintillator;
- a processing circuit comprising:
- a first timing channel to generate a first side event timing signal for the second end-face based on combined detection signals from the first two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- a second timing channel to generate a second side event timing signal for the first lateral face based on combined detection signals from the second two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- and
- a third timing channel to generate a third side event timing signal for the second lateral face based on combined detection signals from the third two-dimensional array of SiPMs;
- a time correction module to adjust the first, second, and third side event timing signals based on the calculated location information of the scintillation event, thereby generating:
- a first adjusted side event timing signal for the second end-face
- a second adjusted side event timing signal for the first lateral face;
- and
- a third adjusted side event timing signal for the second lateral face;
- and
- an imaging system to generate an image based on electronic outputs from the plurality of detector modules.
17 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.