US 12,078,766 B2
Device for the detection of gamma rays with interaction depth and time-of-flight encoding
Jose Maria Benlloch Baviera, Valencia (ES); Antonio Javier Gonzalez Martinez, Valencia (ES); Victor Ilisie, Valencia (ES); John Barrio Toala, Valencia (ES); and Efthymios Lamprou, Valencia (ES)
Assigned to UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA, Valencia (ES); and CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS (CSIC), Madrid (ES)
Appl. No. 17/793,818
Filed by UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA, Valencia (ES); and CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS (CSIC), Madrid (ES)
PCT Filed Jan. 20, 2021, PCT No. PCT/ES2021/070031
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 19, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/148694, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 29, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. ES2020030038 (ES), filed on Jan. 20, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0055050 A1, Feb. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. G01T 1/20 (2006.01); G01T 1/202 (2006.01)
CPC G01T 1/2018 (2013.01) [G01T 1/202 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A device for the detection of gamma rays, comprising a plurality of scintillation crystal detection blocks disposed on an array of photosensors, wherein said array comprises a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, and wherein said detection blocks:
comprise a plurality of elongated scintillation crystal sheets, in the form of rectangular prisms or truncated wedges, which are disposed consecutively on said array of photosensors, wherein said scintillation crystal sheets define a gamma ray input region and a scintillation light output region, in such a way that the scintillation light can be detected by the array of photosensors;
are optically isolated, in such a way that the scintillation light can only exit said blocks via the output region;
wherein the scintillation crystal detection blocks and the array of photosensors are disposed in direct optical coupling;
and wherein the detection device comprises an electronic component connected to the array of photosensors, configured to record the reading information from said photosensors, and to process and/or analyse said information;
said device being characterised in that:
the array of photosensors is at least partially disposed such that it is shared between said detection blocks, and
the electronic component connected to the array are configured to record a plurality of integrated detection signals, corresponding to the sum of signals generated by each row and by each column of the array of photosensors, and to record a set of timestamps associated with each of the integrated detection signals along an axis formed by the disposition of detection blocks.