Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes, or silicon photomultipliers, are promising light sensors for the next generation Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners. The sensor is being used in the scanner’s gamma ray detector to measure scintillation light. This thesis describes the test results of three gamma ray detectors that utilize silicon photomultipliers. The first one is a commercial detector, and the other two are custom made. The detectors are tested for their 511 keV photon energy and timing resolution, as well as their ability to measure light from small scintillator crystals. The two custom made detectors had smaller active area, but outperformed the commercial detector in energy resolution. The introduction of buffer amplifiers improved the timing resolution of one detector. All three detectors had their crystal decoding ability limited by signal multiplexing and the sensor’s dark noise. Finally, a detector design was proposed for the PET system being developed in our group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:MWU.1993/18339 |
| Date | 29 October 2011 |
| Creators | Liu, Chen-Yi |
| Contributors | Goertzen, Andrew (Physics & Astronomy), Fiege, Jason (Physics and Astronomy) Lin, Francis (Physics and Astronomy) Major, Arkady (Electrical and Computer Engineering) |
| Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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