SemiSPECT: A small-animal SPECT imager based on eight cadmium zinc tellurium detector arrays

Abstract

We have completed a new small-animal imaging system, called SemiSPECT, based on eight pixellated cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) gamma-ray detector arrays. The detector is a 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm x 0.15 cm slab having a 64 x 64 pixel array. A read-out application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is attached onto the detector via indium-bump bonding, and a -180 V bias is applied onto the detector surface to transport electron-hole pairs generated by gamma-ray interaction. Eight detectors are arranged in an octagonal lead-shielded ring. An eight-pinhole aperture is placed at the center of the ring, and an object is imaged onto each detector through a pinhole. The object can be rotated about a vertical axis to attain sufficient angular projections for tomographic reconstruction. The whole system gantry is compact enough to be placed onto a desktop-sized optical breadboard. Eight front-end boards were developed to detect events, generate list-mode data arrays, and send them to back-end boards. Four back-end boards are utilized to hold the list-mode data arrays and transfer them to a host computer. Eight clock-and-bias boards provide clock and bias signals to the eight ASICs. Eight control-and-bias boards were developed to monitor and control the temperatures on the eight detectors, analog and digital currents supplied to the eight ASICs, and -180 V biases applied to the eight detector surfaces. The spatial resolution provided by SemiSPECT, estimated both based on the system geometry and via the Fourier crosstalk approach, is about 1∼2 mm. The system sensitivity measured with a point source is about 1.53 x 10⁻⁴, and the estimated one from the system geometry is about 1.41 x 10⁻⁴. The energy resolution acquired by summing neighboring pixel signals in a 3 x 3 window is about 10% full-width-at-half-maximum for 140 keV gamma rays. The detectabilities for multiple signal spheres simulating various lesions or organs in a small animal are presented and discussed. A line-phantom image demonstrates that the spatial resolution achieved after tomographic reconstruction is on the order of 1 mm³. A walnut-phantom image is presented to demonstrate how well SemiSPECT reproduces complex structure of an object and compared with a CT image. Images of various organs of mice, such as bone, kidney, and myocardium, and human-lung cancer implanted into a nude mouse are presented and discussed.