APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Spectral CT for medical imaging
- Security imaging
- Fiber-optic communications
ADVANTAGES:
- High spatial resolution, sensitivity, and count rates
- Yields cleaner CT images
- Enables lower dose imaging
- Functional imaging
ABSTRACT:
Berkeley Lab’s Woon-Seng Choong has developed a new discriminating photon-counting detector (PCD) to enable spectral computed tomography (CT) with cleaner images for higher clinical value and, potentially, better patient outcomes. The detector consists of a pixelated array of scintillators, a silicon photodiode array, and an ASIC readout soldered to the photodiode array.
Compared to integrating PCDs for standard CT, the Berkeley Lab technology discriminates between incident X-ray photon wavelengths, which allows for a clearer contrast between soft tissues, tissue-type specific images, a lower-dose procedure, and quantitative gray-scale pixel values of CT images that are linear attenuation coefficients. In contrast with discriminating PCDs for spectral CT, it has an intermediary, and is not made with standard semiconductors, which are limited by charge trapping, charge sharing, insufficient count rate capability, and long-term stability issues. Overall, this new detector offers a more detail-focused and specific process of CT imaging, with less barriers.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle.
STATUS: Patent pending. Available for licensing or collaborative research.
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
NaI:TI-based Inorganic Scintillator with Superior Performance, 2014-169
Nanometer Resolution TEM Imaging of Biological Samples in Liquid, 2013-165