Development of a PET Prototype with Continuous LYSO Crystals and Monolithic SiPM Matrices

OMEGA - ElectroniqueInternational audienceA small animal PET prototype with continuous LYSO crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers has been developed and the first images have been reconstructed. The system consists of two detector heads attached to a rotating stage. Each detector head is composed of a 12mm x 12mm x 5mm crystal coupled to a monolithic silicon photomultiplier matrix. The matrix has 8x8 pixel elements of 1.4mm x 1.5mm size in a 1.5mm x 1.5mm pitch. Measurements have been carried out with two black crystals and two white crystals. Different position determination algorithms in continuous crystals are being tested to determine the interaction position in the detector heads. In addition, tests with pixellated crystal arrays of 64 pixels of 1.5mm x 1.5mm x 10mm size have been carried out in order to compare the imaging performance. Data have been taken with one and two Na-22 sources in different positions. Images have been reconstructed with filtered backprojection (FBP) and statistical iterative maximum likelihood methods