Two major challenges in time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) are low spatial resolution and high radioactive dose to the patient, both of which result from limitations in detection technology rather than fundamental physics. A new type of TOF-PET detector employing low-atomic number (low-Z) scintillation media and large-area, high-resolution photodetectors to record Compton scattering locations in the detector has been proposed as a promising alternative, but the minimum technical requirements for such a system have not yet been established. Here we present a simulation study evaluating the potential of a proposed low-Z detection medium, linear alkylbenzene (LAB) doped with a switchable molecular recorder, for next-generation TOF-PET detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNucl Instrum Methods Phys Res A
November 2021
We propose PET scanners using low atomic number media that undergo a persistent local change of state along the paths of the Compton recoil electrons. Measurement of the individual scattering locations and angles, deposited energies, and recoil electron directions allows using the kinematical constraints of the 2-body Compton scattering process to perform a statistical time-ordering of the scatterings, with a high probability of precisely identifying where the gamma first interacted in the detector. In these cases the Line-of-Response is measured with high resolution, determined by the underlying physics processes and not the detector segmentation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have designed and prototyped the process steps for the batch production of large-area micro-channel-plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMT) using the "air-transfer" assembly process developed with single LAPPD modules. Results are presented addressing the challenges of designing a robust package that can transmit large numbers of electrical signals for pad or strip readout from inside the vacuum tube and of hermetically sealing the large-perimeter window-body interface. We have also synthesized a photocathode in a large-area low-aspect-ratio volume and have shown that the micro-channel plates recover their functionality after cathode synthesis.
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