New Room Temperature Semiconductor Detectors for Small Animal SPECT

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is an in vivo analog of autoradiography and is emerging as a powerful new tool in imaging biological processes in small laboratory animals. With the ever increasing number of human disease models (including cancer) in small laboratory animals such as mice and rats, high resolution radionuclide imaging of small animals allows functional information to be obtained non-invasively, so each animal can be studied repeatedly. There is a critical need for low cost, high performance semiconductor gamma-ray detectors for small animal SPECT systems. Cadmium zinc telluride (Cd1-xZnxTe or "CZT") has emerged as the leading room temperature semiconductor gamma ray detector. However, despite decades of research and recent improvements in crystal growth and processing techniques, the yield of device grade CZT is low. To meet the needs of nuclear medicine a lower cost alternative to CZT is desirable. Cadmium manganese telluride (Cd1-xMnxTe or "CMT") shares many of the desirable nuclear detector properties of CZT including wide band gap, high atomic number and density and modestly high electron mobility-lifetime product. In addition, CMT has the potential to be a lower cost alternative to CZT. RMD has produced detector-grade CdTe crystals by the travelling heater method for many years and will adapt its technology to CMT. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: In addition to nuclear medicine, nuclear non-proliferation, computed tomography and non