Liquid Xenon detector for 10ps time of flight positron emission tomography

用于 10ps 飞行时间正电子发射断层扫描的液氙探测器

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-05789
• 负责人: Tétrault, MarcAndré
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: Université de Sherbrooke
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=717308
• 关键词: Liquid; Xenon; detector; 10ps; time

Doctors rely heavily on medical imaging to assist them in the detection of various diseases in patients. Specifically, nuclear molecular imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) let us follow radioactive molecules that are injected in patients. These molecules interact or not with the body's chemistry. This, for example, allows oncologists to give an early diagnostic of cancer, before the tumour can be seen by other methods, as well as see if a cancer therapy is successful or not. PET imaging is also used to investigate new treatment plans or study misunderstood diseases, like Alzheimer's disease, both in humans and in small animal models of these diseases. The accuracy of the exam depends on the expert's training, but also on the quality of the images in terms of resolution (how small can we see) and contrast (sharp difference between dark and bright areas). The technology of current PET scanners has reached the limit in terms of resolution, so research to boost image quality has turned towards improving the contrast. This can be done through a complementary measurement mode named time-of-flight (ToF). In this mode, the detection of the radioactive molecule, mentioned above, becomes much more accurate, and this accuracy translates into a better contrast as there is less guesswork' involved during the generation of the image. My research program's overall goal is to design, build and test a PET detector system that will measure ToF with 10 picosecond accuracy, which corresponds to 10 millionth of one millionth of a second. With radiation moving at the speed of light, this corresponds to a 1.5 mm spatial accuracy. For comparison, the best commercial clinical scanners have a TOF accuracy of about 400 picosecond, or 6 cm. A massively multidisciplinary goal, my research program leverages recent innovations achieved at Université de Sherbrooke in ultra-fast sensor electronics. To achieve the 10 picosecond detector, my program will contribute to 1) experimentally confirm that liquid xenon, a very fast detection material but seldom used in PET, can reach the 10 picosecond goal or not; 2) develop electronics that can handle networks of these new sensors and process their gigabits per second of generated data on the fly, otherwise unmanageable in the clinic 3) investigate the compatibility of emerging low-cost sensors with PET for eventual commercialization of the scanner system. The resulting detector module will enable the construction of a new generation of high contrast human PET scanners, with more than 10x improvement over the best commercial scanners in the world. This increased contrast will allow us to inject less radioactive molecules in patients when performing PET scans, hence opening PET imaging to pediatric, natal and neonatal imaging. Lastly, my cutting-edge program will consolidate Canada's position as world leader in state-of-the-art PET scanner design.

医生在很大程度上依靠医学成像来帮助他们检测患者的各种疾病。具体而言，核分子成像技术（例如正电子发射断层扫描（PET））让我们遵循患者注射的放射性分子。这些分子与人体的化学反应或不相互作用。例如，这允许肿瘤学家早期对癌症进行早期诊断，然后才能通过其他方法看到肿瘤，并查看癌症疗法是否成功。宠物成像还用于研究新的治疗计划或研究诸如阿尔茨海默氏病的验收疾病，包括人类和这些疾病的小动物模型。 考试的准确性取决于专家的培训，还取决于分辨率（我们可以看到的小）和对比度（黑暗和明亮区域之间的巨大差异）的图像质量。当前的PET扫描仪的技术在分辨率方面达到了极限，因此提高图像质量的研究已转向改善对比度。这可以通过名为飞行时间（TOF）的完整测量模式来完成。在这种模式下，上述放射性分子的检测变得更加准确，并且该准确性转化为更好的对比度，因为在图像的产生过程中所涉及的猜测较少。 我的研究计划的总体目标是设计，构建和测试宠物探测器系统，该系统将以10秒的精度测量TOF，这对应于1000万秒的一秒钟中的1000万。随着辐射以光速移动，这对应于1.5 mm的空间精度。为了进行比较，最好的商业临床扫描仪的TOF精度约为400 picsecond或6厘米。我的研究计划是一个巨大的多学科目标，利用了超快速传感器电子中的Sherbrooke大学实现的最新创新。为了实现10个皮秒检测器，我的程序将有助于1）实验确认液体氙气是一种非常快速的检测材料，但很少用于PET，可以达到10个picsecond目标； 2）开发可以处理这些新传感器网络并每秒生成的数据的千兆位的电子产品，否则在诊所中否则难以操纵。3）研究了新出现的低成本传感器与PET与扫描仪系统的事件商业化的兼容性。 最终的探测器模块将使新一代高对比度的人类宠物扫描仪的构建，比世界上最好的商业扫描仪提高了10倍以上。这种增加的对比度将使我们在进行PET扫描时对患者的放射性分子减少，从而将PET成像开放给小儿，纳塔尔和新生儿成像。最后，我的尖端计划将巩固加拿大在最先进的PET扫描仪设计中成为世界领导者的地位。