University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Hybrid pixel-waveform semiconductor detectors: novel detector readout for semiconductor pet imaging of small animal neurodegenerative models

Groll, Andrew Nicholas

Content Files
GROLL-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/99177

Description

Title
Hybrid pixel-waveform semiconductor detectors: novel detector readout for semiconductor pet imaging of small animal neurodegenerative models
Author(s)
Groll, Andrew Nicholas
Issue Date
2017-09-12
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Meng, Ling-Jian
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Meng, Ling-Jian
Committee Member(s)
  • Uddin, Rizwan
  • Dobrucki, Wawrzyniec
  • Tai, Yuan-Chuan
Department of Study
Nuclear, Plasma, & Rad Engr
Discipline
Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2018-03-13T15:20:58Z
Keyword(s)
  • CdTe detectors
  • PET
  • Hybrid Pixel-Waveform
  • Energy Resolvable Photon Counting Detectors
Abstract
Developing nuclear detection instrumentation for biomedically selected tasks uniquely produces a dualistic intellectual challenge: the engineering of the instrument cannot occur without mastery knowledge of its governing principles while a lack of clear understanding of the application provides an uncertain instrument performance requirement. Therefore, this work lays the contextual importance of developing nuclear imaging instrumentation for application specific purposes by focused discussion on preclinical pathological dementia imaging. To this end, this work explores the potential use of small pixel hybrid pixel-waveform (HPWF) CdTe detectors for PET by experimentally evaluating common performance criteria such as timing resolution, energy resolution, and spatial resolution with efforts aimed at deconstructing the performance limitations as a PET detector module intended for imaging small animal neurodegenerative models. HPWF CdTe detectors utilize a simplified anode ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) to readout the anode pixels for providing the X-Y address of gamma interactions, and use digital waveform sampling circuitry to read the cathode waveform for deriving the energy, timing and (depth-of interaction) DOI. This offers several advantages over typical CdTe pixel detectors for PET, including a) an improved timing resolution over anode triggered pixelated detectors, b) an improved energy resolution since the cathode signal is immune to the charge sharing and charge loss due to small pixels, c) a simplified anode pixel readout circuitry for smaller pixels, and d) an excellent potential DOI resolution. Experimental work was performed in multiple iterations to include analysis of a phantom point source image, a simple back projected microfluidic phantom with 750 μm and 500 μm channels, and a mouse brain phantom demonstrating the spatial resolution breaking performance in application to mouse models while simultaneously comparing the improvement over the current 1-2 mm limit. The results show sub 1 millimeter spatial resolution is possible with HPWF detectors.
Graduation Semester
2017-12
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99177
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2017 Andrew Groll

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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering