The aim of this work is the evaluation of the design for a nonconventional PET scanner, the voxel imaging PET (VIP), based on pixelated room-temperature CdTe detectors yielding a true 3-D impact point with a density of 450 channels/cm(3), for a total 6 336 000 channels in a seamless ring shaped volume. The system is simulated and evaluated following the prescriptions of the NEMA NU 2-2001 and the NEMA NU 4-2008 standards. Results show that the excellent energy resolution of the CdTe detectors (1.6% for 511 keV photons), together with the small voxel pitch (1 × 1 × 2 mm(3)), and the crack-free ring geometry, give the design the potential to overcome the current limitations of PET scanners and to approach the intrinsic image resolution limits set by physics. The VIP is expected to reach a competitive sensitivity and a superior signal purity with respect to values commonly quoted for state-of-the-art scintillating crystal PETs. The system can provide 14 cps/kBq with a scatter fraction of 3.95% and 21 cps/kBq with a scatter fraction of 0.73% according to NEMA NU 2-2001 and NEMA NU 4-2008, respectively. The calculated NEC curve has a peak value of 122 kcps at 5.3 kBq/mL for NEMA NU 2-2001 and 908 kcps at 1.6 MBq/mL for NEMA NU 4-2008. The proposed scanner can achieve an image resolution of ~ 1 mm full-width at half-maximum in all directions. The virtually noise-free data sample leads to direct positive impact on the quality of the reconstructed images. As a consequence, high-quality high-resolution images can be obtained with significantly lower number of events compared to conventional scanners. Overall, simulation results suggest the VIP scanner can be operated either at normal dose for fast scanning and high patient throughput, or at low dose to decrease the patient radioactivity exposure. The design evaluation presented in this work is driving the development and the optimization of a fully operative prototype to prove the feasibility of the VIP concept.
We report on the characterization of 2 mm thick CdTe diode detector with Schottky contacts to be employed in a novel conceptual design of PET scanner. Results at -8 • C with an applied bias voltage of -1000 V/mm show a 1.2% FWHM energy resolution at 511 keV. Coincidence time resolution has been measured by triggering on the preamplifier output signal to improve the timing resolution of the detector. Results at the same bias and temperature conditions show a FWHM of 6 ns with a minimum acceptance energy of 500 keV.These results show that pixelated CdTe Schottky diode is an excellent candidate for the development of next generation nuclear medical imaging devices such as PET, Compton gamma cameras, and especially PET-MRI hybrid systems when used in a magnetic field immune configuration.
A positron emission mammograph (PEM) is an organ dedicated positron emission tomography (PET) scanner for breast cancer detection. State-of-the-art PEMs employing scintillating crystals as detection medium can provide metabolic images of the breast with significantly higher sensitivity and specificity with respect to standard whole body PET scanners. Over the past few years, crystal PEMs have dramatically increased their importance in the diagnosis and treatment of early stage breast cancer. Nevertheless, designs based on scintillators are characterized by an intrinsic deficiency of the depth of interaction (DOI) information from relatively thick crystals constraining the size of the smallest detectable tumor. This work shows how to overcome such intrinsic limitation by substituting scintillating crystals with pixelated CdTe detectors. The proposed novel design is developed within the Voxel Imaging PET (VIP) Pathfinder project and evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation. The volumetric spatial resolution of the VIP-PEM is expected to be up to 6 times better than standard commercial devices with a point spread function of 1 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) in all directions. Pixelated CdTe detectors can also provide an energy resolution as low as 1.5% FWHM at 511 keV for a virtually pure signal with negligible contribution from scattered events.
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