Comparison of an electronically collimated system and a mechanical cone-beam system for imaging single photons

The sensitivity performance of an electronically collimated system (ECS) for imaging single-photon emitters was compared to a cone-beam mechanically collimated system (CCS). An analytical study indicates a factor of 62 gain in the counting sensitivity of the ECS at 140 keV for a 25-cm-diameter sphere. After accounting for the extra noise introduced in the ECS due to count multiplexing, comparative computer simulated studies of noise propagation in the tomographic reconstruction from cone-beam projections for both systems indicate that the ECS can achieve the same signal-to-noise ratio as the CCS in less than 10% of the counting time.<>