SiliPET: Design of an ultra-high resolution small animal PET scanner based on stacks of semi-conductor detectors

We studied with Monte Carlo simulations, using the EGSnrc code, a new scanner for small animal positron emission tomography (PET), based on stacks of double-sided semiconductor detectors. Each stack is composed of planar detectors with dimension 70×60×1 mm3 and orthogonal strips on both sides with 500 μm pitch to read the two interaction coordinates, the third being the detector number in the stack. Multiple interactions in a stack are discarded. In this way, we achieve a precise determination of the first interaction point of the two 511 keV photons. The reduced dimensions of the scanner also improve the solid angle coverage resulting in a high sensitivity. Preliminary results of scanners based on Si planar detectors are presented and the initial tomographic reconstructions demonstrate very good spatial resolution limited only by the positron range. This suggests that, this is a promising new approach for small animal PET imaging. We are testing some double-sided silicon detectors, equipped with 128 orthogonal p and n strips on opposite sides using VATAGP3 ASIC by IDEAS.