Adaptive Storage and Archiving Database and Compression System

65408 The use of Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) in the construction of gamma cameras for nuclear medicine has been largely unchanged since it was first described in the 1950¿s. Solid state gamma cameras offer vast improvements in performance, size, weight, processing techniques, and cost. However, gamma cameras based on solid state detectors have not achieved all of these goals because of basic limitations in the solid-state detector technologies themselves. In particular the performance of solid-state photodetectors is limited by noise due to their capacitance and leakage current. This project will develop a new type of photodetector that incorporates extremely low capacitance and internal gain that mitigates the leakage current noise. Simulations based on preliminary measurements suggest that intrinsic spatial resolution of 1-2mm and energy resolution of 7-10% full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) at 140keV are possible at room temperature in a scintillation-camera based on the new technology. Phase I will perform detailed simulations and modeling of the structure and fabrication process for the device. Detector test structures on high resistivity silicon will be designed, processed, and evaluated. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by awardee: This technology has the potential to replace photomultiplier tubes used in conjunction with scintillation crystals for gamma-ray spectroscopy, nuclear medical imaging, photon counting, etc. The overall market for the instrumentation in these areas is in the billions of dollars. The portion of this market addressed by this technology is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.