• 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.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.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.461-465
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• 1999

Scintillation proximity assay (SPA) is a unique type of radioimmunoassay and makes it possible to use radioisotopes for monitoring binding reactions continuously without separation procedure. Microbeads containing a fluorophor are covalently linked to antibody or receptor. When a radiolabeled antigen or ligand is added it binds to the beads and the emitted short range electrons, excite the fluorophor in the beads. The light emitted can be measured in a scintillation counter. $^3H$ or $^{125}I$ has been used for SPA. The sensitivities achieved with SPA are comparable to the sensitivities of other procedures. SPA is applicable to immunology, receptor binding, monitoring interactions of biomolecules and study for the kinetics of interaction between receptors and ligands.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1760-1768
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• 2022

When gamma-camera sensor modules, which are key components of radiation imagers, are derived from the coupling between scintillators and photosensors, the light collection efficiency is an important factor in determining the effectiveness with which the instrument can identify nuclides via their derived gamma-ray spectra. If the pixel area of the scintillator is larger than the pixel area of the photosensor, light loss and cross-talk between pixels of the photosensor can result in information loss, thereby degrading the precision of the energy estimate and the accuracy of the position-of-interaction determination derived from each active pixel in a coded-aperture based gamma camera. Here we present two methods to overcome the information loss associated with the loss of photons created by scintillation pixels that are coupled to an associated silicon photomultiplier pixel. Specifically, we detail the use of either: (1) light guides, or (2) scintillation pixel areas that match the area of the SiPM pixel. Compared with scintillator/SiPM couplings that have slightly mismatched intercept areas, the experimental results show that both methods substantially improve both the energy and spatial resolution by increasing light collection efficiency, but in terms of the image sensitivity and image quality, only slight improvements are accrued.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2592-2598
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• 2022

Research groups in the field of PET instrumentation are studying time-of-flight(TOF) technology to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of PET images. Scintillation light transport and collection plays an important role in improving the coincidence resolving time(CRT) of PET detector based on a pixelated crystal array. Four crystal arrays were designed by the different optical reflection configuration such as external reflectors and surface treatment on the CRT and compared with the light output, energy resolution and CRT. The design proposed in the study was composed of 8 × 8 LYSO crystal array consisted of 3 × 3 × 15 mm³ pixels. The entrance side was roughened while the other five surfaces were polished. Four sides of all crystal pixels were wrapped with ESR-film, and the entrance surface was covered by Teflon-tape. The design provided an excellent timing resolution of 210 ps and improved the CRT by 16% compared to the conventional method using a polishing treatment and ESR-film. This study provided a method for improving the light output and CRT of a pixelated scintillation crystal-based brain TOF PET detector. The proposed configuration might be an attractive detector design for TOF brain PET requiring fast timing performance with high cost-effectiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.525-531
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• 2021

The detector of the positron emission tomography (PET) is composed using a plurality of scintillation pixels and photo sensors. The use of multiple photo sensors increases cost and complicates signal processing. In this study, a detector with reduced cost and simple signal processing was designed using a small number of photo sensors. A scintillation pixel and a small number of photo sensors were used, and a optical guide was used to deliver light to all the photo sensors. A reflector is applied to the scintillation pixel and the optical guide to transmit the maximum amount of light to the photo sensor. A diffuse reflector and a specular reflector were used for the reflector, and a flood image was obtained by applying different thicknesses of the optical guide. An optimal combination was selected through comparative analysis of the acquired flood images. As a result, when specular reflectors were used for both the scintillation pixel and the optical guide, excellent flood images were obtained from optical guides of all thicknesses. For the optical guide, the optimal image was obtained when using a 3 mm thickness in consideration of the size of the image and the analysis of the point where the image of the scintillation pixel was formed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1045-1051
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• 2023

In this study, we fabricated a liquid light-guide-based radiation sensor with a LaBr₃:Ce scintillator for remote gamma-ray spectroscopy. We acquired the energy spectra of Cs-137 and Co-60 using the proposed sensor, estimated the energy resolutions of the full energy peaks, and compared the scintillation light output variations. The major peaks of the radionuclides were observed in each result, and the estimated energy resolutions were similar to that of a general NaI(Tl) scintillation detector without a liquid light guide. Moreover, we showed the relationships of energy resolution and analog-to-digital channel regarding the number of photoelectrons produced and confirmed the effects of light guide length on remote gamma-ray spectroscopy. The proposed sensor is expected to be utilized to perform remote gamma-ray spectroscopy for distances of 3 m or more and would find application in many fields of nuclear facilities and industry.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.282-285
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• 2016

Background: To optimize the photon transmission efficiency of light guides used in scintillation detectors, LightTools code, which can construct and track light, was used to analyze photon transmission effectiveness with respect to light guides thickness. Materials and Methods: This analysis was carried out using the commercial light guide, N-BK 7 Optical Glass by SCHOTT, as a model for this study. The luminous exitance characteristic of the LYSO scintillator was used to analyze the photon transmission effectiveness according to the thickness of the light guide. Results and Discussion: The results of the simulations showed the effectiveness of the photon transmission according to the thickness of the light guide, which was found to be distributed from 13.38% to 33.57%. In addition, the photon transmission efficiency was found to be the highest for light guides of 4 mm of thickness and a receiving angle of $49^{\circ}$. Conclusion: Through such simulations, it is confirmed that photon transmission efficiency depends on light guide thickness and subsequent changes in the internal angle of reflection. The aim is to produce an actual light guide based on these results and to evaluate its performance.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.157-165
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• 2017

In this paper, we calculate the light photons collection efficiency of large-volume plastic scintillation detector mainly used for radiation portal monitor (RPM). A Monte Carlo light photon transport code, DETECT2000, were used to quantitatively evaluate light collection efficiency of plastic scintillation detector. DETECT2000 calculated the placement of light collection efficiency based on the energy spectrum. We calculated the light collection efficiency relative to the position of the energy spectrum that proportional to the placement of the source. The $850{\times}285{\times}65mm^3$ size of polyvinyl toluene (PVT) scintillator was used for measurements. Through DETECT2000 simulation, the light collection efficiency of $5{\times}5$ arrays were calculated and verification was performed by comparing with experimentally measured. And then, the corrected MCNP simulation by applying the light collection efficiency in $21{\times}13$ arrays was compared and analyzed. Comparing the Monte Carlo simulation with measured results, it shows an average difference of 10.1% in $5{\times}5$ arrays. Particularly, about twice of the difference was found in the edge of first column, which coupled with PMT. In whole $5{\times}5$ array, the overall ratio was the same except for the first column. And then comparing the energy spectra of the $21{\times}13$ array with and without the light collection efficiency, it shows a difference of 6.69% in Compton edge area. The DETECT2000 based light collection efficiency simulation showed well agreement with the point source experiment. And comparing with measured energy spectra, we could compare the differences according to whether or not the light collection efficiency was applied. As a results, it is possible to increase the accuracy and reliability of Monte Carlo simulation results by pre-calculating the light collection efficiency according to the PVT geometry by using the DETECT2000.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.207-210
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• 1998

Surface electrical conduction in insulator is most important factor to assess the insulation performances of outdoor insulating materials. In this paper, contamination performance of the widely used materials for outdoor insulator - porcelain, EPDM, Silicone rubber - were discussed by measuring properties of average leakage current and scintillation discharge pulses under artificial contamination conditions. The artificial contaminations used were deionized distilled water fog, 0.5wt% NaCl salt fog of light pollution and 2wt% NaCl salt fog of medium pollution. The average leakage current was appeared linearly with applied voltage at dry and clean surface condition. The magnitude of leakage current was almost same at different kinds of samples. In case of deionized distilled water fog, the characteristics of leakage current and applied voltage was most different to that in case of dry and clean condition. In case of salt fog pollution condition. The leakage current was increased above critical voltage. The scintillation discharges were also activated at the level the leakage current and scintillation discharges were increased with increasing pollution degree. The resistance to pollution properties of silicone rubber appeared excellent among them.