Photon counting computed tomography (PCCT) is a promising clinical diagnostic device for reducing the radiation dose, improving the image quality and material decomposition. Currently compound semiconductor-based detectors has been used, however, we have developed a new type of photon counting detector based on silicon-photomultiplier (SiPM) and GAGG（Gadolinium Aluminum Gallium Garnet）/GFAG（Gadolinium Fine Aluminum Gallate scintillation crystal array in this work. The developed indirect PCCT detectors have a very fine pitch size of 250 µm with a sufficient energy resolution approximately 25% @ 122 keV. The fabricated photon counting detector shows the spatial resolution approximately 300 µm and low pixel crosstalk less than 10%. The established technology can contribute to the low-dose X-ray CT, contrast-agent imaging and novel imaging modality with material decomposition capability.
Papers
Journal: Communications Engineering
Title: An energy-resolving photon-counting X-ray detector for computed tomography combining silicon-photomultiplier arrays and scintillation crystals
Authors: Kenji Shimazoe*, Donghwan Kim, Moh Hamdan, Yosuke Kobayashi, Kei Kamada, Masao Yoshino, Yasuhiro Shoji, Kyohei Sakamoto, Fabio Acerbi, Alberto Gola