Device for the detection of gamma rays with interaction depth and time-of-flight encoding

A device for the detection of gamma rays, comprising a plurality of scintillation crystal detection blocks disposed on an array of photosensors, wherein said array comprises a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, and wherein said detection blocks:

• comprise a plurality of elongated scintillation crystal sheets, in the form of rectangular prisms or truncated wedges, which are disposed consecutively on said array of photosensors, wherein said scintillation crystal sheets define a gamma ray input region and a scintillation light output region, in such a way that the scintillation light can be detected by the array of photosensors;
• are optically isolated, in such a way that the scintillation light can only exit said blocks via the output region;
• wherein the scintillation crystal detection blocks and the array of photosensors are disposed in direct optical coupling;
• and wherein the detection device comprises an electronic component connected to the array of photosensors, configured to record the reading information from said photosensors, and to process and/or analyse said information;
• said device being characterised in that:
• the array of photosensors is at least partially disposed such that it is shared between said detection blocks, and
• the electronic component connected to the array are configured to record a plurality of integrated detection signals, corresponding to the sum of signals generated by each row and by each column of the array of photosensors, and to record a set of timestamps associated with each of the integrated detection signals along an axis formed by the disposition of detection blocks.