Optical photon transport simulations for SiPM based PET scanner

Abstract

Abstract Positrons emitted from radioisotope quickly annihilates to two collinear photons that are captured by the array of scintillator detectors to infer about the origin of radioactivity. Coincidence collection of pair of points from the detector modules makes a line of response, their large number reveals a radioactive region of interest. Most of the medical diagnostic research is conducted with position sensitive imaging device whose performance strongly depends on the optical light collection efficiency. A versatile Lutetium–Yttrium Oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) scintillator is used to mimic the optical photon production and transport processes followed by the light collection with Silicon PhotoMultiplier sensor. Charge spectrum from a 2 × 2 × 10 mm3 single LYSO bar is obtained in GEANT4, and reproduces well the scintillation characteristics of LYSO along with photons incidence angle distribution with a single SiPM pad. This excercise is followed by the simulation performance of two PET modules comprises of 12 × 12 SiPM tile coupled with mesh of LYSO bars. The preliminarly results shows the transverse position resolution (FWHM) as 7.82 mm for a point source. Objective of this study is to search for a cheaper detector solution which will have equivalent imaging performance.