US 11,982,780 B2
Helical PET architecture
Stefan B. Siegel, Knoxville, TN (US); Ziad Burbar, Knoxville, TN (US); and Inki Hong, Knoxville, TN (US)
Assigned to Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, PA (US)
Appl. No. 17/632,405
Filed by Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, PA (US)
PCT Filed Feb. 14, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/018240
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 2, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/162702, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 19, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0291402 A1, Sep. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. G01T 1/29 (2006.01); A61B 6/00 (2006.01); A61B 6/03 (2006.01); A61B 6/42 (2024.01); G01T 1/20 (2006.01)
CPC G01T 1/2985 (2013.01) [A61B 6/037 (2013.01); A61B 6/4266 (2013.01); A61B 6/4275 (2013.01); A61B 6/4435 (2013.01); G01T 1/20181 (2020.05); G01T 1/20182 (2020.05)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A positron emission tomography (PET) imaging system, comprising:
a gantry having a patient-receiving tunnel;
a first detector unit and a second detector unit housed inside the gantry, wherein the first detector unit comprises a plurality of detector elements in a helical arrangement around an axial axis of the PET imaging system, and wherein the second detector unit comprises a plurality of detector elements in a helical arrangement around the axial axis of the PET imaging system,
wherein each of the detector elements in the second detector unit is spaced apart from a corresponding detector element in the first detector unit along a direction parallel to the axial axis of the PET imaging system by an axial gap;
wherein each detector element in the first and second detector units has an axial position measured parallel to the axial axis from an entrance of the patient-receiving tunnel to a geometric center of the detector element, and
wherein each of the first and second detector units comprising its plurality of detector elements arranged so that a set of the plurality of detector elements is positioned such that each detector element in the set is offset from an adjacent detector element in the detector unit in a direction parallel to the axial axis of the PET imaging system such that a maximum difference between axial positions of detector elements in each detector unit is less than or equal to the axial gap.