• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2022

A detector using a small number of photosensors was designed, and the position of a scintillation pixel that interacted with gamma rays through a maximum likelihood position estimation(MLPE) was measured as a digital position. For this purpose, simulation was performed using DETECT2000, which can simulate the movement of light within the scintillator, and the accuracy of position measurement was evaluated. A detector was configured using a 6 × 6 scintillation pixel array and 4 photosensors, and a gamma ray event was generated at the center of each scintillation pixel to create a look-up table through the ratio of acquired light. The gamma-ray event generated at the new position was applied as the input value of the MLPE, and the positiion of the scintillation pixel was converted into a digital positiion after comparison with the look-up table. All scintillation pixels were evaluated, and as a result, a high accuracy of 99.1% was obtained. When this method is applied to the currently usesd system, it is concidered that the process of determining the position of the scintillation pixel will be simplified.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.697-702
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• 2022

For imaging in positron emission tomography(PET), it is necessary to measure the position of the scintillation pixel interacting with the gamma rays incident on the detector. To this end, in the conventional system, a flood image of the scintillation pixel is obtained, the imaged area of each scintillation pixel is separated, and the position of the scintillation pixel is specified and acquired as a digital signal. In this study, a deep learning method was applied based on the signal formed by the photosensor of the detector, and a method was developed to directly acquire a digital signal without going through various procedures. DETECT2000 simulation was performed to verify this and evaluate the accuracy of position measurement. A detector was constructed using a 6 × 6 scintillation pixel array and a 4 × 4 photosensor, and a gamma ray event was generated at the center of the scintillation pixel and summed into four channels of signals through the Anger equation. After training the deep learning model using the acquired signal, the positions of gamma-ray events that occurred in different depth directions of the scintillation pixel were measured. The results showed accurate results at every scintillation pixel and position. When the method developed in this study is applied to the PET detector, it will be possible to measure the position of the scintillation pixel with a digital signal more conveniently.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.929-934
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• 2018

Studies for counting and detecting X-rays for the improvement of image quality and material analysis are active. In this work, the detector for X-ray photon counting was designed using Multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) array and the detector characteristics were evaluated through simulation. Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) was used to obtain the position where the X-ray and the scintillation interacted, and this position was used as the light generation position of DETECT2000. 0.5 mm and 1 mm thick Gadolinium Aluminium Gallium Garnet (GAGG) scintillators were used and the light generated through a $4{\times}4$ array of MPPCs was acquired. The spatial resolution of the designed detector was evaluated by reconstructed image using the light signal acquired for each channel. We obtained images of more than 2 lp/mm in both 0.5 mm and 1 mm thick GAGG scintillation. When this detector is used in a X-ray system, a low-cost system capable of photon counting can be made.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2023

Among imaging and treatment devices for small animals, positron emission tomography(PET) causes a change in spatial resolution within a field of view. This is a phenomenon caused by using a small gantry and a thin and long scintillation pixel, and detectors that measure the interaction depth are being developed and researched to solve this problem. In this study, a detector that measures the interaction depth was designed using several scintillator blocks and light guides with different reflector patterns. The scintillator block composed of 4 × 4 arrays of 3 mm × 3 mm × 5 mm scintillation pixels formed four layers, and a light guide was inserted in each layer to configure the entire detector. In order to check whether the interaction depth was measured, a gamma ray interaction was generated at the center of all scintillation pixels to acquire data and then reconstructed into a flood image. The reflector patterns of the light guides inserted between the layers were all different, so the positions of the scintillation pixels for each layer were formed in different locations. It is considered that even spatial resolution can be achieved over all regions of the field of view if all positions of the scintillation pixels thus formed are separated and used for image reconstruction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.319-324
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• 2019

A depth-encoding detector module with silicon photomultipliers(SiPMs) using two layers of scintillation crystal array was designed, and the position measurement capability was verified using DETECT2000. The depth of interaction of the crystal pixels with the gamma rays was tracked through the image acquired with the combination of surface treatment of the crystal pixels and reflectors. The bottom layer was treated as a reflector except for the optically coupled surfaces, and the crystals of top layer were optically coupled each other except for the outer surfaces so that the light sharing was made easier than the bottom layer. Flood images were obtained through the combination of specular reflectors and random reflectors, grounded and polished surfaces of crystal pixels, and the positions at which layer images were generated were measured and analyzed. The images were reconstructed using the Anger algorithm, whose the SiPM signals were reduced as the 16-channels to 4-channels. In the combination of the grounded surface and all reflectors, the depth positions were discriminated into two layers, whereas it was impossible to separate the two layers in the all polished surface combinations. Therefore, using the combination of grounded surface crystal pixels and reflectors could improve the spatial resolution at the outside of the field of view by measuring the depth position in preclinical positron emission tomography.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a small animal PET using dual layer phoswich detector to minimize parallax error that degrades spatial resolution at the outer part of field-of-view (FOV). Materials and Methods: A simulation tool GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) was used to derive optimal parameters of small PET, and PET was developed employing the parameters. Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) and Lutetium-Yttrium Aluminate-Perovskite(LuYAP) was used to construct dual layer phoswitch crystal. $8{\times}8$ arrays of LSO and LuYAP pixels, $2mm{\times}2mm{\times}8mm$ in size, were coupled to a 64-channel position sensitive photomultiplier tube. The system consisted of 16 detector modules arranged to one ring configuration (ring inner diameter 10 cm, FOV of 8 cm). The data from phoswich detector modules were fed into an ADC board in the data acquisition and preprocessing PC via sockets, decoder block, FPGA board, and bus board. These were linked to the master PC that stored the events data on hard disk. Results: In a preliminary test of the system, reconstructed images were obtained by using a pair of detectors and sensitivity and spatial resolution were measured. Spatial resolution was 2.3 mm FWHM and sensitivity was 10.9 $cps/{\mu}Ci$ at the center of FOV. Conclusion: The radioactivity distribution patterns were accurately represented in sinograms and images obtained by PET with a pair of detectors. These preliminary results indicate that it is promising to develop a high performance small animal PET.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 2008

Position information of radiation interactions in detection material is essential to reconstruct a radiation source image. With most position sensing techniques, the position information of a single interaction inside the detectors can be precisely obtained. Each interaction position of multi-scattering inside scintillators, however, can not be individually measured and only the average of the scattering positions can be obtained, which causes the uncertainty in the measured interaction position. In this paper, the position uncertainties due to the multi-scattering were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation model was a 50 by 50 by 5 mm $LaCl_3$(Ce) scintillator(pixel size is 2 by 2 by 5mm) which was utilized for the dual collimation camera. The dual collimation camera uses the information from both photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, and therefore, position uncertainties for both partial and full energy deposition of radiation interactions are calculated. In the case of partial energy deposition(PED), the standard deviations of positions are less than $1{\sim}2mm$, which means the uncertainty caused by multi-scattering is not significant. Because the effect of the multi-scattering with PED is insignificant, the multi-scattering has little effect on the performance of Compton imaging of dual collimation camera. In the case of full energy deposition(FED), however, the standard deviation of the positions is about twice that of the pixel size of the 1stdetector, except for 122keV incident radiations. Therefore, the standard deviations caused by multi-scatterings should be considered in the design of the coded mask of the dual collimation camera to avoid artifact on the reconstructed image. The position uncertainties of the FEDs are much larger than those of the PEDs for all radiation energies and the ratio of PEDs to FEDs increases when the incident radiation energy increases. The position uncertainties of both PEDs and FEDs are dependent on the incident radiation energy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.162-168
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• 2012

In proton therapy, in vivo dose verification is one of the most important parts to fully utilize characteristics of proton dose distribution concentrating high dose with steep gradient and guarantee the patient safety. Currently, in order to image the proton dose distribution, a prompt gamma distribution detection system, which consists of an array of multiple CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors in the vertical direction, a collimator, and a multi-channel DAQ system is under development. In the present study, the optimal design of prompt gamma distribution detection system was studied by Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNPX code. For effective measurement of high-energy prompt gammas with enough imaging resolution, the dimensions of the CsI(Tl) scintillator was determined to be $6{\times}6{\times}50mm^3$. In order to maximize the detection efficiency for prompt gammas while minimizing the contribution of background gammas generated by neutron captures, the hole size and the length of the collimator were optimized as $6{\times}6mm^2$ and 150 mm, respectively. Finally, the performance of the detection system optimized in the present study was predicted by Monte Carlo simulations for a 150 MeV proton beam. Our result shows that the detection system in the optimal dimensions can effectively measure the 2D prompt gamma distribution and determine the beam range within 1 mm errors for 150 MeV proton beam.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 2015

In proton therapy, verification of proton dose distribution is important to treat cancer precisely and to enhance patients' safety. To verify proton dose distribution, in a previous study, our team incorporated a vertically-aligned one-dimensional array detection system. We measured 2D prompt-gamma distribution moving the developed detection system in the longitudinal direction and verified similarity between 2D prompt-gamma distribution and 2D proton dose distribution. In the present, we have developed two-dimension prompt-gamma measurement system consisted of a 2D parallel-hole collimator, 2D array-type NaI(Tl) scintillators, and multi-anode PMT (MA-PMT) to measure 2D prompt-gamma distribution in real time. The developed measurement system was tested with $^{22}Na$ (0.511 and 1.275 MeV) and $^{137}Cs$ (0.662 MeV) gamma sources, and the energy resolutions of 0.511, 0.662 and 1.275 MeV were $10.9%{\pm}0.23p%$, $9.8%{\pm}0.18p%$ and $6.4%{\pm}0.24p%$, respectively. Further, the energy resolution of the high gamma energy (3.416 MeV) of double escape peak from Am-Be source was $11.4%{\pm}3.6p%$. To estimate the performance of the developed measurement system, we measured 2D prompt-gamma distribution generated by PMMA phantom irradiated with 45 MeV proton beam of 0.5 nA. As a result of comparing a EBT film result, 2D prompt-gamma distribution measured for $9{\times}10^9$ protons is similar to 2D proton dose distribution. In addition, the 45 MeV estimated beam range by profile distribution of 2D prompt gamma distribution was $17.0{\pm}0.4mm$ and was intimately related with the proton beam range of 17.4 mm.