Characterization of the latest Birmingham modular positron camera

Abstract

Positron imaging techniques rely on the detection of the back-to-back annihilation photons arising from positron decay within the field of view of a positron camera. A standard technique, called positron emitting particle tracking (PEPT), uses a number of these detected events to rapidly determine the position of a positron emitting tracer particle introduced into the system under study. Conventionally, PEPT is performed using a positron camera with fixed geometry. Recently, however, a more flexible detection system (the modular positron camera) has been developed which allows customization of the detection geometry (i.e. allowed field-of-view) tailored for specific applications. Typically, PEPT is used to study particle dynamics, granular systems and multiphase flows. Presented in this paper are studies into the performance of the modular camera system, performed using a mixture of both Monte Carlo techniques and experimental validation. Studies of the stored event rate (and therefore particle location rate and location precision) have been performed and show a maximum data rate of 2.5 MHz, leading to particle location rates of 10 kHz with location precision of 0.5 mm in three dimensions.

On the Ability of Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) to Track Turbulent Flow Paths with Monte Carlo Simulations in GATE

“…Different scanners specialised for PEPT applications have been adapted from their original medical imaging purposes to measure particle behaviour in systems of flow. These include the ADAC Forte [14], Modular [15], MicroPEPT [16], and SuperPEPT [17] cameras at the University of Birmingham, UK, where the PEPT technique was first developed [18], and the Siemens ECAT EXACT3D HR++ camera at PEPT Cape Town at the University of Cape Town, South Africa [19] (see Figure 1; referred to as "HR++" henceforth). Other facilities specialising in PEPT measurements are the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the US [20] and the University of Bergen in Norway [21].…”

Recent advances in positron emission particle tracking: a comparative review

“…Individual detector blocks are grouped into units called 'buckets' which typically host 4 to 12 blocks. For bismuth germanate oxide (BGO) crystals used in contemporary PEPT scanners, a single bucket may achieve an event rate of 1.5-2.0 MHz [52]. As the total singles rate for a camera system is simply the sum of the individual bucket singles rates, a ring scanner (which comprises a number of such buckets) can easily achieve a total singles rate of 30 MHz; the HR++ system at Cape Town, for example, can provide singles rates >70 MHz for suitably active particles.…”