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Solid state detectors in nuclear medicine

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 Q J NUCL MED 2002;46:3-7

CA Solid state detectors in Nuclear Medicine

DI D. G. DARAMBARA, A. TODD-POKROPEK

E
M ®
Since Nuclear Medicine diagnostic applications are grow- From the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering
ing fast, room temperature semiconductor detectors University College London, London, UK
such CdTe and CdZnTe either in the form of single detec-

A
tors or as segmented monolithic detectors have been

T
investigated aiming to replace the NaI scintillator. These
detectors have inherently better energy resolution that

V
scintillators coupled to photodiodes or photomultipli-

H
er tubes leading to compact imaging systems with high-
imaging modality in many fields like neurology, car-
diology and oncology leading to a demand of an even

R
er spatial resolution and enhanced contrast. Advantages more rapid expansion.
The most commonly used γ camera for single pho-

G
and disadvantages of CdTe and CdZnTe detectors in
imaging systems are discussed and efforts to develop ton emitters is based on a design originally devel-

N E R I
semiconductor-based planar and tomographic cameras
as well as nuclear probes are presented.
KEY WORDS: Semiconductors - Cadmium compounds - Gamma
oped by Anger1 nearly 40 years ago. An image is
obtained by using a detector consisting of a large-area
NaI(Tl) scintillator viewed by an array of photomul-

I
cameras - Nuclear medicine. tiplier tubes. In this type of detector, the scintillator

Y
absorbs the radiation and emits visible light in propor-
tion to the energy absorbed. The focusing of the γ rays

M P
n Nuclear Medicine a γ-ray emitting radiotracer is
I usually injected intravenously in the body and its
distribution is imaged using either a large-area γ cam-
emitted from the body is achieved by several types of
collimators. The most commonly used collimators
include parallel, converging, diverging and pinhole.

O
era or a single-detector probe. The main task of
Nuclear Medicine as an imaging modality is to provide

C
us with functional information with respect to a spe-
cific organ, e.g. brain or heart, as well as to the beha-
viour of particular molecules directed against tissues
containing pathological cells. Other imaging modal-
ities such as computed tomography, magnetic reso-
nance imaging and ultrasound are capable of mainly
imaging anatomy, while nuclear medicine is extreme-
ly sensitive to physiologically relevant studies. As a
result, today nuclear medicine is a well-established
Address reprint requests to: D. G. Darambara, Department of Medical
Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, 11-20 Capper
Street, London WC1E 6JA, UK. E-mail: dimitrad@medphys.ucl.ac.uk -
E-mail: atoddpok@medphys.ucl.ac.uk
The position of interaction in the crystal is derived by
comparing the light yield in various photomultiplier
tubes. The intrinsic spatial resolution of current γ
cameras is typically 3-4 mm. However the existing
scintillation γ cameras reach fundamental perfor-
mance limitations imposed by the detection systems
and collimators presently used. The energy resolution
is rather poor, in particular in energies lower that
150 keV, affecting both the intrinsic spatial resolu-
tion and the intrinsic efficiency, and therefore, a sig-
nificant fraction of scattered photons contributes to
decrease the image contrast. An increase in crystal
thickness as well as statistical fluctuations in the light
distribution play a significant role in further reducing
the spatial resolution. The γ cameras are also quite

Vol. 46 - No. 1 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE 3

DARAMBARA SOLID STATE DETECTORS FOR USE IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE

bulky and immobile due to the shielding needed to
reject scattered radiation. Therefore, attempts have
been made to replace the NaI scintillators with sem-
iconductor detectors with better spectroscopic char-
acteristics to improve contrast and quantitative meas-
urements.
bias. Finally, it is possible to segment these detectors
into pixel arrays with very fine pitch allowing high spa-
tial resolution.4
However, a considerable amount of charge loss in
these detectors, due to incomplete charge collection
caused by the low mobility and short lifetime of holes,

A
produces a reduced energy resolution. Incomplete
charge collection could limit the thickness and there-
fore the volume of detectors, which in turn limits the

C
Room temperature semiconductor detectors
usefulness of the detector. Significant improvements

DI
Room temperature solid-state detectors have paved
the way for their wider use in research, industrial and
medical applications by achieving better energy res-
olution at room temperature without loss of detec-
have been recently achieved to improve the spectral
properties based on the advances in the production of
crystals and in the design of electrodes.5 After contin-
uous efforts, a technique for growing large single CdTe

E
tion efficiency. In particular for imaging devices, their with good charge transport properties and compensa-
good energy resolution and the ability to fabricate tion of native defects with Cl seems to be established:
compact arrays are very attractive characteristics in the travelling heater method (THM).6 Very recently,

M ®
comparison with inorganic scintillation detectors cou-
pled to either photodiodes or photomultiplier tubes.
The system spatial resolution however is expected to
CdZnTe grown by the high-pressure Bridgman (HPB)
technique 7 possesses several advantages over CdTe,
mainly higher resistivity (nearly two orders of magni-

A T
be similar to scintillation cameras, because this param-
eter depends primarily on the geometric characteris-

V
tics of the collimator. The best two semiconductor
tude larger), and therefore, lower leakage currents
and low-noise characteristics. As a result, CZT detec-
tors can be implemented, in large area and thickness,

H
detectors, silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), exhibit

R
excellent energy resolution and charge transport prop-

G
erties. Nevertheless, their low stopping power for
as single element detectors or as segmented mono-
lithic pad or strip detectors at low photon energies.
However, at present, the yield of HPB CdZnTe dies suit-

E
able for X- and γ-ray imaging devices is very low, as

I
high-energy photons as well as the small bandgap of
germanium, which forces us to operate the detectors well as the hole collection in CdZnTe detectors is
almost one order of magnitude smaller than that of

R
at cryogenic temperatures, limit their applications.

N
Therefore, room temperature semiconductors with

I
high atomic numbers and wide bandgaps have long

Y
been under development as X- and γ-ray detectors.
the recent CdTe detector. This is probably due to some
degradation in properties introduced by adding Zn.
Many methods have been proposed and used to

M P
The most attractive and promising solid-state detec- overcome the hole-trapping problem for both types of
tor materials for room temperature X- and γ-ray detec- detectors in order to correct for variations in charge
tion are CdTe, CdZnTe (CZT) and possibly HgI2. In losses at different depths of interaction within the

O
particular, both CdTe and Cd1-xZnxTe can be consid- detector and therefore to improve their charge collec-
ered from their favourable physical properties as very tion properties.5 One approach is to use the informa-

C
good candidates for medical imaging applications
because of their high density, the high atomic num-
ber of their components and a wide bandgap.2, 3 The
high atomic number of these materials, Zcd=48 and
ZTe=52, gives a high quantum efficiency, in compar-
ison with Si, for relatively low photon energies even
at thickness smaller than 3 mm. A large bandgap ener-
gy of Eg=1.5 eV allows us to operate these detectors
at room temperature. They allow direct conversion
of the energy absorbed to charge leading to much
better energy resolution compared to scintillator-based
systems, which improves Compton scatter suppres-
sion. Additionally, they can operate in low voltage
tion contained in the pulse shape by means of special-
ly designed electronics.2, 8 Another approach is to
design detectors and/or electrodes of various geom-
etries. For example, in hemispherical 2 or cylindrical
detectors the induced charge is dominated by electron
transport. Further, new ideas based on the concept of
single charge collection have been proposed utilising
techniques to form strip or pixel electrodes on the
surface of the material and to process many channels
by means of high-density analogue LSI in the form of
ASICs.9-13 Coplanar grids, small pixels and control
electrode, 3D configuration are some examples of
these novel electrode designs.

4 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE March 2002

SOLID STATE DETECTORS FOR USE IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE DARAMBARA

CdTe and CdZnTe detectors
in Nuclear Medicine
Due to a considerable research work on material,
contacts and dedicated electronics, CdTe and CdZnTe
detectors in the form of single elements or as seg-
cm camera equipped with 40×32 CdTe:Cl detectors
with Pt contacts and a pixel size of 4×4 mm, each
one connected to a low-noise pre-amplifier and an
amplifier-shaper. Continuous clinical trials of the
NUCAM camera were carried out for more than 2
years in various hospitals in Israel and USA for differ-

A
mented monolithic sensors have been shown to be ent clinical procedures, such as cardiac Tl and Tc per-
useful in nuclear medicine imaging systems.14-17 These fusion, Tc MIBI gated perfusion, Tc MUGA, thyroid,
detectors possess inherently better energy resolution breast, and children organs. The performance of the

IC
than scintillators coupled to either photodiodes or
photomultipliers and together with application specif-
ic integrated circuits lead to compact imaging systems
NUCAM was comparable to that of the Anger came-
ra, with contrast resolution due to scatter rejection
better for the NUCAM camera.

D
with higher spatial resolution and enhanced contrast.
Since the clinical demand for improved systems is

E
increasing as nuclear medicine applications are
expanding, CdTe and CZT detectors are now widely
accepted and used. CdTe and CZT-based intraopera-
Digital Corporation (San Diego, USA) has devel-
oped the first small γ-camera based on CZT detec-
tors, Digirad 2020t Imager, which is on market. It has
an active area of 21.6×21.6 cm made of 64 25×25×5
mm CZT detector modules. Each module is an 8×8

M ®
tive probes are well established and have great impact
on patient management in surgical oncology, partic-
ularly for sentinel node localisation (breast cancer
array of pixels with an electrode configuration that
reduces trapping problems.19 The system can be
mounted on a special rotation chair to carry out heart

A T
and cutaneous melanoma). Although today a large
field γ camera based on multi-element detector array

V
is very expensive for clinical systems, small field of
SPECT studies. Initial results show that Digirad cam-
era has comparable or better performance than that of
conventional Anger cameras allowing better imaging

R H
view, compact pixellated γ cameras with improved
energy resolution have been developed and already

G
on market. Affordable, high-performance, mobile
geometries in some clinical procedures such as breast
imaging.
Under the umbrella of BIOMED II European pro-

E I
small-field dedicated systems are very attractive, since gramme, a CdTe:Tl camera has been built (15×15 cm,
they are more patient friendly, can be used closer to 3 mm pixel) and images of test objects were obtained.

R
the patient and can be brought in areas such as oper-

N
These images were better when compared to those
ating theatres and intensive care units or can be used taken by a Helix γ camera, but the whole system suf-

I
in hospitals, which do not have nuclear medicine sec-

Y
tions. CZT detectors with high resistivity and low leak-
fered from low sensitivity.
A CZD γ camera that provides an array of CZT pix-

M P
age current can be promising candidates for compu- els and associated front-end electronics has been
terised tomography (CT) systems at a reasonable cost. designed permitting γ camera measurements using
However, potential problem, there, is the long after- the method patented by CEA-LETI and reported by

O
glow of the CZT varying widely from a few µs to Verger et al.20 Electron response in each CZT pixel is
months, which might reduce the contrast sensitivity registered by correcting pulse height for position of

C
and the dynamic range. Regarding the position emis-
sion tomography (PET) systems, CdTe and CZT have
better energy resolution compared to BGO and LSO
scintillators currently used; though the latter have
higher atomic number, higher densities, and there-
fore, higher efficiency than CdTe and CZT. The main
limitation arises from the thickness of the semiconduc-
tor material presently available. CdTe and CZT detec-
tors are currently been investigated if they can success-
fully compete with BGO and LSO scintillators.
The first CdTe medical imaging system, NUCAM,
was presented by Eisen et al.18 aiming to replace the
Anger type γ cameras. NUCAM is a small field 16×16
interaction based on fast rise time information bring-
ing advantage of high scatter rejection while allowing
high detection efficiency. The project, named
PEGASE,21 has been developed at CEA-LETI in an
exclusive joint development with BICRON and CRIS-
MATEC, which in turn are commercialising the tech-
nology. The initial system is implemented in an array
framework with 1920 pixels, approximately 180×215
mm2 in dimension, but the system architecture
expands readily to 4096 pixels, and up to 8 boards can
be combined to provide up to 32000 pixels without
changes in system logic.
Another example of small camera is the ELGEMS

Vol. 46 - No. 1 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE 5

DARAMBARA SOLID STATE DETECTORS FOR USE IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE

(Israel) prototype camera based on IMARAD 40×40×4
mm CZT detector modules indium doped (2.5 mm
pixel) and equipped with a modified collimator.
Finally, Siemens Medical systems has an R&D collab-
orative project with IMARAD to design and build a
large field of view γ camera.
However, there are inherent limitations in planar
ing both X-ray CT and SPECT with fast photon count-
ing electronics.30, 31
Most of the tumours clinically detected by scintilla-
tor-based γ cameras may be investigated by intraoper-
ative detection when they require surgical treatment.
The intraoperative detection has been so far evaluat-
ed in the case of several pathologies including osteoid

A
imaging which restrict the further development of
planar cameras based on semiconductor detectors. It

C
is known that the spatial resolution and efficiency
osteoma, colorectal cancer, neuroblastoma, re-opera-
tion of differentiated thyroid carcinoma and localisation
of sentinel node in breast cancer and cutaneous mel-

DI
compromise in γ cameras is mainly controlled by the
collimator. Therefore the use of solid-sate detectors in
multiple-pinhole SPECT imaging could be proved
more advantageous than in planar imaging. It has
anoma. This means that the development of miniatur-
ised nuclear probes presents potential interest.
Depending upon the type of application some partic-
ular probes and electronic devices have been designed

E
been shown in simulations by Rogulski et al.22 that it to provide the surgeon with the best information.
is possible to have substantial improvement in both Manufacturers of intraoperative probes use either scin-
spatial resolution and counting efficiency over conven- tillators or semiconductors, which are well adapted

M ®
tional systems, if a combination of multiple-pinhole for the range of energies covered by nuclear medi-
imaging system and high-resolution semiconductor cine. Four commercially available probes based on
detector arrays is used. A prototype system (ultra high CdTe, CZT, NaI, CdTe or CsI have been developed

A
resolution brain SPECT system, Tuscon University of and evaluated.32, 33 These are: 1) the Auto Suture

T
Arizona, USA) using CZT focal-plane arrays is under

V
development 23 consisting of 256 modular detectors in

H
a full 3D-SPECT approach. The detector is a 64×64
Navigator system based on CdTe detector; 2) the
CareWise C-Trak system based on NaI(Tl) scintillator
and photomultiplier tube; 3) the Eurorad system: EURO-

R
hybrid CZT detector array interfaced to a multiplexer PROBE; this device can accommodate two probes: a
CdTe detector for low- and middle-energy range and

G
readout chip custom designed for this application.
a CsI(Tl) with a Si photodiode for middle- and high-

E I
Another application of semiconductor detectors
concerns the Compton camera or electronically colli- energy range; and 4) the Neoprobe system (1500 and
mated SPECT, which has the potential for dramatic neo2000); at the beginning Neoprobe worked with

N R
improvement in sensitivity without sacrificing spatial

I
resolution. The standard Compton camera is a two-

Y
detector coincidence system. Several approaches of
Compton camera have been developed based on seg-
CdTe detectors, now replaced by CZT with significant
improvements in spectroscopic capabilities. The CZT-
and NaI-based probes are preferred due to their high-
er sensitivity in the 300-400 keV energy range. All these

M P
mented Ge detectors, Si-pad or microstrip Si detec-
tors.24-27 Most recently, feasibility studies of using CdTe
commercial probes for intraoperative use are based
either on a single scintillation crystal or single semicon-
ductor detector having a size ranging between 5 and

O
and CZT detectors for Compton camera have been
presented.28, 29 However, even though CZT has a bet- 20 mm in diameter. However, small multi-detector CZT
ter energy resolution than most scintillators, its value devices are under development.

C
is still below that of Ge. It is expected that this type
of Compton camera will work better at higher ener-
gies such as 511 keV.
A medical imaging system providing both X-ray
transmission and radionuclide measurements would
Conclusions

Overall, due to the significant progress in produc-

allow correlation of structural and functional infor-
mation. Most recently systems based on pixellated
CZT detector for combined X-ray computed tomogra-
phy (CT) and single photon emission computed
tomography (SPECT) imaging modalities have been
designed and are currently evaluated. Preliminary
results suggest that CZT detector is capable of perform-
ing high-quality CdTe and CdZnTe crystals, these
materials are now regarded as promising candidates
for X- and γ-ray detectors for medical applications.
In particular, it is demonstrated that these room tem-
perature detectors are capable of improving the spa-
tial resolution and imaging performance of nuclear
medicine cameras. However, the widespread use of

6 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE March 2002

 SOLID STATE DETECTORS FOR USE IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE
these detectors depends on the production and avail-
ability of low-cost large-area semiconductor substrates
as well as on further advances in ASICs for the fabri-
cation of fine pitch pixel detectors. Work currently
under way by research laboratories and industry will
take forward the further development of these prom-
ising detectors.
A
C
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