Physical design of photon-counting mode γ -ray large object radiation imaging system

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The detectors of existing large object radiation imaging systems generally work under current-integration mode and cannot distinguish effective signals of unreacted photons from interfering signals of electronic noise and scattered photons, therefore, resulting in image quality deterioration.

OBJECTIVE:

This study aims to design a new photon-counting mode γ-ray large object radiation imaging system. Therefore, interfering signals with lower energy than effective signals can be eliminated by energy analysis. In addition, the system enables to work properly even under 30∼300Ci Co-60 intensity.

METHODS:

Based on the physical analysis of the system, the design requirements are listed. Following the requirements, the best-performing photon-counting detector based on LYSO and SiPM is used in the system. ZP-SK and (ZP)²-SK filter circuits are designed for Co-60 radiation imaging system with the highest intensity of 100Ci and 300Ci, respectively. Then, a voltage comparator and an FPGA are followed to realize the function of energy analysis and photon counting.

RESULTS:

The proposed technical solution can improve the Steel Penetration (SP) by at least 60∼70 mmFe compared with the existing current-integration system, which is equivalent to the improvement obtained by increasing the intensity of the radioactive source more than 13 to 20 times.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study demonstrates the advantages of applying the new photon-counting mode γ-ray large object radiation imaging system to improve the radiation image quality and the penetration ability, which will have enormous potential for future applications.

Keywords

Photon-counting mode radiation imaging system electronics circuits Steel Penetration

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ghani

M.U.

, et al., Evaluation and comparison of a CdTe based photon counting detector with an energy integrating detector for X-ray phase sensitive imaging of breast cancer, Journal of X-ray Science and Technology 30(2) (2022), 207–219.

Verbinski

V.V.

, Orphan

V.J.

and Khan

S.M.

, Gamma radiography cargo vehicle scanner, Proc SPIE 2936 (1997), 112–123.

Khan

S.M.

, Nicholas

P.E.

and Terpilak

M.S.

, Radiation dose equivalent to stowaways in vehicles, Health Physics 86(5) (2004), 483–492.

Orphan

V.J.

, Muenchau

, Gormley

and Richardson

, Advanced gamma ray technology for scanning cargo containers, Applied Radiation and Isotopes 63(5-6) (2005), 723–732.

Taylor

, et al., Recent developments in high-resolution-gamma-ray cargo-inspection technology, in International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series 48 (2018), 1860109.

Maidment

A.D.

, et al., Evaluation of a photon-counting breast tomosynthesis imaging system, Proc SPIE 6142 (2006), 61420B.

Thunberg

S.J.

, et al., Dose reduction in mammography with photon counting imaging, Proc SPIE 5368 (2004), 457–465.

Lan

, et al., Review of semiconductor detectors and research on CdZnTe detectors, Proceedings of the 5th National Conference on Nuclear Instrument & Its Application, 2005.

Lan

, et al., Multi-energy detection using CdZnTe semiconductor detectors, in, IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record R13-5 (2008), 428–433.

10.

Nakashima

, et al., Application of CdTe photon-counting X-ray imager to material discriminated X-ray CT – art. no. 67060C, Proc SPIE 6706 (2007), 1617–1626.

11.

Davidson

D.W.

, et al., Detective Quantum Efficiency of the Medipix Pixel Detector, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 50(5) (2003), 1659–1663.

12.

Pepin

C.M.

, et al., Properties of LYSO and recent LSO scintillators for phoswich PET detectors, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 51(3) (2004), 789–795.

13.

Melcher

C.L.

, Scintillation crystals for PET, Journal of Nuclear Medicine 41(6) (2000), 1051–1055.

14.

Shah

, et al., LaBr₃: Ce scintillators for gamma ray spectroscopy, 2002 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record 1 (2002), 92–95.

15.

Zhonghua

, et al., Progress of Small Animal PET Scanners with High Spatial Resolution and High Sensitivity, Nuclear Physics Review 33(3) (2016), 336.

16.

Hamamatsu, Product Information[DB]. Available: http://www.hamamatsu.com.cn/

17.

Cova

, et al., Avalanche photodiodes and quenching circuits for single-photon detection, Applied Optics 35(12) (1996), 1956–1976.

18.

Seifert

, et al., Simulation of Silicon Photomultiplier Signals, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 56(6) (2009), 3726–3733.

19.

Marano

, et al., Improved SPICE electrical model of silicon photomultipliers, Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section a-Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment 726 (2013), 1–7.

20.

Avella

, et al., A study of timing properties of silicon photomultipliers, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 695 (2012), 257–260.

21.

HAMMATSU, MPPCs for percision measurement, (2016). Available: http://www.hamamatsu.com.cn/UserFiles/upload/file/20190728/1.pdf

22.

Agostinelli

, et al., Geant4 — a simulation toolkit, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 506(3) (2003), 250–303.

23.

Janecek

and Moses

W.W.

, Simulating scintillator light collection using measured optical reflectance, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 57(3) (2010), 964–970.

24.

Jian

, Liu

, Peng

and Liu

, Optimized FPGA-based DDR2 SDRAM controller, in IEEE 11th International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments (ICEMI), Harbin, China, 2013, pp. 786–791.