The objective of this study is to investigate a high performance and lower cost compact gamma camera module for a multi-head small animal SPECT system. A compact camera module was developed using a thin Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate （LSO） scintillation crystal slice coupled to a Hamamatsu H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tube （PSPMT）. A two-stage charge division readout board based on a novel subtractive resistive readout with a truncated center-of-gravity （TCOG） positioning method was developed for the camera. The performance of the camera was evaluated using a flood 99roTe source with a four-quadrant bar-mask phantom. The preliminary experimental results show that the image shrinkage problem associated with the conventional resistive readout can be effectively overcome by the novel subtractive resistive readout with an appropriate fraction subtraction factor. The response output area （ROA） of the camera shown in the flood image was improved up to 34%, and an intrinsic spatial resolution better than 2 mm of detector was achieved. In conclusion, the utilization of a continuous scintillation crystal and a flat-panel PSPMT equipped with a novel subtractive resistive readout is a feasible approach for developing a high performance and lower cost compact gamma camera.
本文介绍一种新型的位置读出方法,用于开发高分辨的小型伽玛相机。该伽玛相机采用小单元的CsI(Na)晶体阵列与位置灵敏光电倍增管(PSPMT)结合的探测器。其位置读出电路的设计把常规的阻抗电荷分配法与多路单通道直接读出法的优点结合在一起,由硬件实现局域重心法(Truncated center of gravity)计算读出的位置,取得很好的效果。该伽玛相机的内在分辨率接近1mm,视野(FOV)达探测器的灵敏范围。这种新型的位置读出方法也可用于更高集成度的多阳极的位置灵敏光电倍增管的位置读出。
