Proton therapy is a type of radiation therapy that causes less treatment-related toxicity than standard X- ray therapy and will be offered to Norwegian cancer patients during 2024. The proton therapy units in Oslo and Bergen will have a unique infrastructure for clinical and preclinical research and, when fully operational, will offer treatment to around 850 patients each year. It is a goal to...
In the past years, advanced techniques have been developed to treat lung cancer using particle therapy. This therapy aimed at delivering a more conformal dose to the tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissues.
However, treating moving tumors with ion beams remains a significant challenge. In the case of lung cancer, the patient’s respiratory motion can cause inhomogeneities in the dose...
Precise measurement of radiation levels and radiation field characteristics is a major concern in fundamental physics and life-science applications. In the present contribution, we describe a novel instrument which was in particular designed for application in harsh radiation environments, as found for example in ATLAS or, within the MOEDAL experiment, at a distance of ~1 m from the...
Introduction: Cancer treatment with ion-beams is a highly promising radiotherapeutic technique. Compared to the conventionally used photon irradiation, ion beams offer an advantage of concentrating the radiation dose to the tumor and sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. However, in order to use the full potential of ions, an accurate knowledge about the depth at which the ions stop in...
Detection of soft X-ray photons with high spatial and temporal resolution often involves a process of electron multiplication as the charge produced by a single photon is not sufficient for an accurate event encoding. Microchannel plate (MCP) electron multipliers have been widely used in photon counting detectors where a photoelectron produced by the incoming X-ray photon is converted into a...
The Belle II experiment at KEK in Japan is upgrading its vertex detector system to address the challenges posed by high background levels caused by the inceased luminosity of the SuperKEKB collider. A proposed vertex detector upgrade aims to install an all-layer monolithic pixel vertex detector based on fully depleted CMOS sensors in 2027. The new system will use the OBELIX MAPS chips to...
In this talk, I will review the evolution of solid-state photon counting sensors from avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). The impact of these sensors on LiDAR has been remarkable, however, more innovations are to come with the continuous advance of integrated SPADs and the introduction of powerful computational imaging...
We present results from NIRCA – the near infrared readout controller ASIC for high-performance infrared image sensors, and we describe possible use with readout integrated circuits and microbolometer arrays. NIRCA features 16 analog inputs with programmable gain amplifiers, 16-bit/12MSPS analog-to-digital converters and high-speed serial outputs. We measured the performance in terms of...
Radiation in space is a potential risk to human health and electronic systems. Spacepix-3, the successor of Spacepix-2 [1], is a high voltage monolithic active pixel sensor (HV-MAPS) ASIC capable of measuring flux and distinguishing between types of radiation, protons, electrons, and ions. SpacePix3, improved version of the former SpacePix2, features a 64 × 64 pixel matrix with a pixel pitch...
The detection of single photons within the visible and near infrared spectrum became a key requirement for future space-based observations. Examples are the direct detection of exo-planets, multi object observation of high z-shift objects or high-cadence searches for short duration transients. One option to achieve photon number resolved measurements at non-cryogenic temperatures with a high...
The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility (HERD) is a module being built with a planned launch in 2027. It will be installed on China’s Space Station as part of the Chinese Cosmic Lighthouse Program. An additional Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) will be placed on one of the lateral sides. It will calibrate Calorimeter (CALO) in the TeV energy range with cosmic rays. We have...
This study presents the firmware implementation of an algorithm to reconstruct displaced muons for the Overlap Muon Track Finder (OMTF) of the Level-1 Trigger System (L1T) targeting the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment upgrades for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The firmware response is also compared to that of the software emulator.
The Upgrade L1T system of the...
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was severely damaged during the 2011 Great east Japan earthquake. Currently, investigations and various decontamination efforts are underway to de-commission the plants. However, it is difficult to perform decommissioning inside the reactor because the exact structure of the reactor is not yet known; the radiation level inside the reactor is extremely...
The LHCb Upgrade-I detector is currently operating at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and it isexpected to collect about 50 fb$^{−1}$ by the end of Run 4 (2032), when many sub-systems of the detector will reach their end of lifetime. In order to fully exploit the High-Luminosity LHC potential in flavour physics, the LHCb collaboration proposes a Phase-II Upgrade of the detector, to be...
Structure determination is one of the most important application areas of 4th generation light sources, which in particular can fully exploit the coherent properties and pulsed nature of the X-ray radiation delivered by X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) as the European XFEL. The focus of scientific interest in this area is understanding the physical, biological, and chemical properties of...
The Korea Customs Service presently employs radiation portal monitors (RPM) and hand-held survey meters to detect nuclear and radioactive materials in imported cargo at airports and harbors. However, these devices lack imaging capabilities and only provide count rates or dose rates, making it time-consuming to localize nuclear or radioactive materials. This study introduces a high-speed gamma...
Detector simulation is an important tool to understand and interpret experimental results. With the ground truth data included in the data set, a sufficiently realistic detector model is very valuable in the development and validation of track and particle reconstruction algorithms and can also be used to generate training data sets for neural network based data analysis. In order to correctly...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Phase-2 upgrade increases the instantaneous luminosity to 5 x 10^34 cm-2 s-1 and this very high luminosity will present a major challenge to the most forward regions of the CMS detector. To confront the high background rates, the CMS experiment plans to upgrade the forward muon system by installing three new detectors based on triple-GEM technology to maintain...
High speed optical links with high bandwidth and large data capacity have been widely used in detector front-end readout. There are NRZ (Non Return to Zero) and PAM4 (4-level Pulse-Amplitude Modulation) signal modulation formats in optical link, the NRZ also known as PAM2 has been used for decades, but PAM4 is attracting more and more attention for its doubled bandwidth efficiency compared...
Major upgrades of the ALICE experiment at CERN were completed during the LHC Long Shutdown 2 (2019-2021). The ALICE detector is currently taking data and has been doing so from the start of the third period of operation of the LHC (Run 3) on July 5th, 2022. One key part of these upgrades is the new Inner Tracking System (ITS2), a full silicon-pixel vertexing and tracking detector constructed...
The LUXE experiment aims at studying high-field QED in electron-laser and photon-laser interactions, with the 16.5 GeV electron beam of the European XFEL and a laser beam with power of up to 350 TW. The experiment will measure the spectra of electrons, positrons and photons in expected ranges of $10^{-3}$ to $10^9$ per 1 Hz bunch crossing, depending on the laser power and focus. These...
The hybrid semiconductor pixelated detectors of Timepix family provide online particle tracking. Each particle of various types and energies can be tagged with precise time stamp. This makes them suitable for large variety of applications: medical as radiotherapy or radiology, space on board of satellites and International Space Station and many industrial applications. The measured data is...
Dental computed tomography (CT) has become an indispensable tool in dental practice for accurate diagnosis and precise treatment planning. However, metal artifacts induced by dental restorations or implants present considerable challenges in obtaining high-quality diagnostic images. Such artifacts can lead to misdiagnosis or suboptimal treatment planning. To address this issue, researchers...
Exploiting the “sparse” nature of the information in XPCS and XSVS experiments, we present the SparkPix-S, a 3-sides buttable Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) based on a sparsified readout strategy for large-format hybrid detectors. The SparkPix-S architecture, based on the successful ePix family, will be composed as follows: a front-end 2-D matrix of 384×352 square pixels with...
In July 2022, the experiments installed on the Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring started a new data taking phase, Run-3. Before this phase, an upgrade campaign took place during the so called Long Shutdown 2 phase (2018-2022). In particular, the muon system of the CMS experiment has been upgraded with the installation of a new gas detector station, GE1/1, based on Gas Electron Multiplier...
This work presents the Boston Extended Amplitude Range (BEAR) ASIC that has been designed to work with ACSEPT (A Compact Solar Energetic Particle Telescope), a NASA funded solar energetic particle (SEP) telescope made up of a stack of 10 solid state detectors (SSD). Detailed characterization of ion species over wide energy ranges is required to understand the physics of generation,...
The XSPA 500k detector is an X-ray single photon counting hybrid pixel detector based on UFXC32k readout chips, that has been developed by Rigaku Corporation. The detector offers several unique features such as a seamless array of uniform pixels of 76 × 76 µm², very high-count rate, very fast readout, and an ultra-short multi-gating operation. The double-gating operation has been verified...
The introduction of the new hybrid pixel detector Timepix2, as a successor to the well-known Timepix detector, has presented new opportunities for optimizing and characterizing this novel device. In this paper, we provide a detailed process for optimizing a Timepix2 detector and uncover its behavior, which enables better parameter setting for specific applications, resulting in enhanced device...
In particle therapy the application of safety margins in treatment planning to account for possible morphological variations limits particle therapy intrinsic potential requiring the implementation of safety factors. The development of an in vivo verification system, still missing in clinical routine, is hence considered a crucial step forward in improving the clinical outcome, allowing to...
A new No neutrino Double-beta-decay Experiment (N𝜈DEx) at China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) of the deepest natural rock shield in the world is being developed to search for the 0𝜈𝛽𝛽 of $^{82}Se$ using a high-pressure gas time projection chamber (TPC) with $^{82}SeF_{6}$ as the working medium and read out directly by Topmetal sensor chip. The Topmetal sensor, named Topmetal-S, is...
The ALICE experiment is currently conducting the third round of data-taking at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC Run 3, but is planning an additional detector upgrade for the next data-taking round, LHC Run 4. One of the proposed upgrades contains the extension of the forward physics capabilities of the experiment by including a new high-granularity forward calorimeter (FoCal). This calorimeter...
As a follow-up of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio study presented previously [1], this work discusses the experimental results obtained for the statistical analysis of photon counting detector measurements.
A SPHIRD v1.0 ASIC [2] bump-bonded to a 50µm pitch electron collection silicon sensor 400 µm thick was used as the device under test. The ASIC analogical circuit generates a pulse of tens of...
ATLAS-ITK Strip Collaboration
(the speaker to be selected by the ITk Speakers Committee after the contribution acceptance)
The inner detector of the present ATLAS experiment has been designed and developed to function in the environment of the present Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade, the particle densities and radiation levels will exceed current levels by a...
The high-luminosity upgrade of LHC (HL-LHC) will boost the design luminosity of the accelerator up to 5x10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ while the total integrated luminosity will reach 3000 or even 4000 fb$^{-1}$. The increased radiation levels as well as the higher data rates impose new challenges for the tracking system of CMS. The Tracker will undergo a full replacement in order to cope with...
The nature of dark matter is one of the big open questions in physics. As a minimal extension to the standard model of particle physics, the so-called sterile neutrinos in the keV mass range pose a viable candidate for it. The signature of such a sterile neutrinos could be seen in a high precision spectroscopy measurement of the tritium beta decay. To perform this measurement the TRISTAN...
Many kinds of detectors are highly desirable with a large number of experiments being performed at the heavy ion research facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) and the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF)。A competent and cost-effective front-end electronics system is required for the signal processing of these detectors. In this paper, we present a multichannel front-end readout...
A medium sized hybrid photon-counting detector for hard X-ray diffraction experiments is under development at the SOLEIL synchrotron. This demonstrator is based on the small two-chips camera prototype described in [1] with the pixelated UFXC32k readout chip [2], which has proven its performance in several experiments at the beamlines of SOLEIL, e.g., time resolved pump-probe-probe measurements...
The Extreme Energy Events (EEE) experiment consists of 61 muon telescopes based on Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC), each telescope composed of 3 chambers filled with gas.
The EEE Collaboration is fully involved in the ecological transition of the gas mixture used in the detectors.
The use of the standard gas mixture (98% C$_2$H$_2$F$_4$ - 2% SF$_6$) was discontinued in favor of an...
Ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy has recently been defined revolutionary in chemical dynamics [1], but despite the above-mentioned excellent progress, its full potential still needs to be uncovered. A significant challenge in X-ray spectroscopy is the ability to measure very small changes of the absorption near the K-edges of the atomic elements [2] under investigation with a very high signal to...
Gaseous xenon (GXe) is playing an increasingly significant role in important areas of neutrino physics such as double beta decay and double electron capture experiments, and is a potential alternative to MeV-region γ-ray imaging. The capability for simultaneous readout of both ionization and scintillation signals and for topology reconstruction of the ionizing particle tracks are important...
Recent advances in the design of readout integrated circuits (ROICs), together with improved time resolution in advanced CMOS nodes, open new possibilities for the construction and possible applications of hybrid pixel detectors. The increasing number of designs focusses on providing precise time and energy measurement capabilities for each detected photon. Time-of-Arrival (ToA) and...
Semi-insulating GaAs detectors represent an alternative to silicon detectors exhibiting a higher detection efficiency of gamma and X-rays due to higher material density and promising radiation hardness. Previous studies have shown their ability to withstand doses of a few MGy when degraded by MeV electrons with a main limiting factor which is the charge collection efficiency decreasing with...
In the context of the European strategy for particle physics, a multi-Tev Muon Collider has been proposed as an interesting alternative to investigate the Standard Model with unprecedented precision after the full exploitation of the High-Luminosity LHC.
Some of the physics goals of the Muon Collider include precision measurements of the Higgs boson couplings (requiring excellent Z/H...
As the leading research platform of heavy-ion science in China, the heavy-ion physics and heavy-ion applications at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) drive the development of physics research, especially in the fields of nuclear physics and high-precision medical imaging. Therefore, the beam monitoring system is essential to ensure the quality of the beam delivery. Hence, we...
An Electron-ion collider in China (EicC) will be constructed as a future high-energy nuclear physics project. The vertex and tracking detectors are based on the Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor, which must simultaneously measure time, position, and energy. In addition, the MAPS is expected to be implemented with a commercial process, given the cost. Therefore, a MAPS called Nupix-R1 is developed...
A MAPS named Nupix-A2 has been developed in a 130nm High Resistivity CMOS process for particle hit imaging applications. The Nupix-A2 can simultaneously measure particle hits’ energy, arrival time, and position. It consists of the pixel array with 128 x 128 pixel array, the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) array and a digital control (DC) module. To adapt to different imaging needs, the...
We present results of characterization measurements on irradiated 3D-trench silicon sensors, designed within the TimeSPOT project, and produced by FBK, Trento. The sensors were irradiated at different fluences at the Ljubljana reactor facility and then characterized both in the INFN Cagliari laboratory using a 90Sr source and under 180 GeV/c charged pions at the SPS (CERN, Geneve).
The...
Several advanced silicon pixel-detector technologies are under study within the strategic R&D programme on technologies for future experiments pursued by CERN's Experimental Physics department (EP R&D), reaching excellent spatial (1-4 µm) and sub-nanosecond temporal resolution.
FASTPIX is a monolithic pixel sensor demonstrator targeting sub-nanosecond timing precision and is designed in a...
In this work, we present a prototype Radiation Energy Measuring Integrated Circuit (REMIC). This chip has been fabricated in 28 nm CMOS node, works in single photon counting mode and consists of 100 pixels of size 50 µm × 50 µm (Fig. 1). Each pixel is equipped with a cascoded-inverter-based charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with Krummenacher feedback [1], and three reset circuits: switch-based...
Semi-insulating (SI) GaAs detectors represent a perspective alternative of commercially available silicon detectors, exhibiting high radiation hardness and better efficiency for gamma and X-ray registration due to higher density. The SI GaAs detectors found already application also as sensors for Timepix based detectors [1]. Here the miniaturization of Schottky contact to dimensions fitting...
Charge sharing can be used to improve the spatial resolution of hybrid pixel detectors [1] with small pixels through interpolation. However, it also complicates the calibration process due to the distortion of the measured spectrum.
In this paper we present lab based per pixel calibration method for MÖNCH0.3 [2], a charge integrating hybrid pixel detector with 25 x 25 μm2 pixels, bump...
Selected as a NASA Astrophysics Pioneers mission, TIGERISS is designed to measure the nuclear composition of cosmic rays above 350 MeV/nucleon from 5B through 82Pb with individual element resolution. TIGERISS will obtain high-statistics measurements of the Ultra-Heavy Galactic Cosmic Rays (UHGCRs; Z > 27), including the first ever single-element resolution measurements of elements above 56Ba....
Since direct gravitational wave and neutrino detections has achieved [1], a new field of research called multi-messenger astronomy has emerged, which combines multiple signals beyond electromagnetic waves to investigate astrophysical phenomena more deeply. KOYOH is a microsatellite project that monitors and observe X-ray transients associated with gravitational waves, developed by Kanazawa...
The LHC machine is planning an upgrade program, the High Luminosity scenario (HL-LHC), which will smoothly bring the luminosity to about 5-7.5$\times$10$^{34}$ Hz cm$^{-2}$, to possibly reach an integrated luminosity of 3000-4000 fb$^{-1}$ over about a decade.
In order to fully exploit the delivered luminosity and to cope with the demanding operating conditions, the whole silicon tracking...
EMPIX[1] is a high dynamic range diamond pixel detector for MeV ultra-fast electron diffraction and microscopy. The prototype readout ASIC integrates 32×8 pixels electronics with each pixel consisting of a dual range charge integrator, a correlated double sampler and a 12-bit Wilkinson type ADC. The strong penetration of MeV electrons brings possibilities for electron microscopy of thick...
To combat illicit trafficking at airports and harbours, the presence of nuclear and radioactive material in imported goods must be carefully inspected. For fast and precise inspection, we are developing a high-speed gamma imaging system, which rapidly localizes and specifies nuclear and radioactive material in a wide outdoor environment, as shown in Figure 1. This system offers a number of...
The PIMEGA Series of high-resolution, Medipix-based pixel hybrid semiconductor detectors are extensively used at Sirius X-ray source of LNLS research facility, for imaging and data acquisition from X-rays driven experiments on material science. This contribution summarizes the results of the analysis performed on a dataset of images acquired at different sensor temperatures, under vacuum...
Construction of the new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk), developed by the ATLAS collaboration to be able to track charged particles produced at the High-Luminosity LHC, started in 2020 and is expected to continue till 2028. The ITk detector will include 22,000 highly segmented and radiation hard silicon strip sensors (ATLAS18). Mechanical and electrical characteristics of produced sensors are...
It has been more than ten years since HPAD (Hybrid Pixel Array Detectors) had been widely utilized as X-ray diffraction and imaging detectors. Thanks to its single photon counting capability, HPAD shows images without background noise and wide dynamic range. Due to limitations of the fabrication process, most HPADs are made with monolithic sensor and tiled readout ICs. In conventional HPAD,...
We present results from a new x-ray and gamma-ray spectrometer with continuous sampling of detector
signals. The system was designed for Compton scatter collimation with up to 4 detector crystals of
cadmium zinc telluride (CZT of 20mm x 20mm x 10mm). Here, we report on the capability to sample
positive and negative polarity charges from detector electrodes at programmable sampling...
Airborne gamma-ray survey is widely used to quickly identify the composition of territorial radioelement and the extent of soil contamination due to artificial radioactive isotope over a wide area. Unlike radiation detection on ground, background correction is essential in airborne radiation measurements due to the significant impact of radon in the atmosphere and cosmic-ray.
This study...
Czech technological satellite VZLUSAT-2 was launched to Sun-synchronous orbit in January 2022 onboard with Space Dosimetry System Demonstrator (2SD). The 2SD system contains SpacePix Radiation Monitor (SXRM) and Soft X-ray Monitor (SXM) subdetectors based on monolithic pixel detector technology.
SXRM is a multi-layer pixel detector with SpacePix2[1] ASICs designed to determine the type of a...
The European XFEL is a research facility that delivers extremely bright and short coherent X-ray pulses of tunable energy at MHz repetition rate, providing unprecedented capabilities to conduct scientific research in multiple domains by internal and external users.
Among the suite of detectors deployed in the European XFEL, there are several ePix100 units belonging to the family of ePix...
Comparison of photon-beam scans on 3D-positioning CZT with a defect-enabled numerical simulation
Alexandre Delcourt1*, Guillaume Montémont1, Anthony Schaal1
- CEA Leti, 17 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
- Corresponding author, alexandre.delcourt@cea.fr
Imagers capable of 3D positioning are useful for localizing photon-emitting sources as they enable Compton imaging,...
Due to ongoing innovation in physics instrumentation, modern semiconductor detectors like Timepix3 [1] and Timepix4 [2] impose increasingly large demands on bandwidth and computational capabilities of data acquisition (DAQ) software. This motivates optimizations that achieve parity with intractable input data rates by various means: for instance, by offloading expensive calculations from...
Silicon photon counting pixel detectors suffer from low absorption efficiency in the gamma spectrum. Therefore, a high-Z material such as CdTe/CZT is frequently used as the sensing material as its absorption efficiency is much higher than silicon sensors. However, these sensors suffer from the charge-sharing effect and secondary fluorescent photons with long mean free paths, which deprive the...
The data driven mode of Timepix3 allows for energy bins, which can be adaptively re-binned during material reconstruction with spectroscopic X-ray imaging. This work aims to generate probability maps for the initial interaction position and energy for detected clusters with Timepix3 detectors. The correction maps are calculated for various cluster shapes, energies and subpixel center of mass...
The Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou (HIRFL) and the High-Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) are the leading heavy-ion physics centers. Since the scale of experiments at HIRFL and HIAF are significantly increased, the High-speed and the high-density data transmission links have become urgent requirements for the heavy-ion physics experiments. VCSEL-based array optical...
The field of X-ray imaging polarimetry has expanded significantly since the development of the first photoelectron-based X-ray polarimeter. This sophisticated system measures the polarization of X-ray photons by reconstructing the initial direction of the photoelectron track created by an interaction of an incident photon with a gas mixture. The current photoelectron-based X-ray polarimeter,...
‘Pseudo’ Laue diffraction experiments [1], with multi pink beam, is being considered as an option for the upgrade of SOLEIL [2] for fast time resolved crystallographic applications in the energy range from 5 to 30 keV. A factor of over 1000 in acquisition speed, compared to current performances, may be expected and the capability of simultaneous measurements of photon fluxes at different...
Dark-field chest radiography allows for assessment of lung alveolar structure by exploiting wave optical properties of x-rays. Here we present first results on the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of dark-field chest radiography in participants with COVID-19 pneumonia. Dark-field radiography shows high accuracy for the detection of COVID-19 and significantly improves diagnostic...
Dual Energy Computed Tomography (DECT) and Photon-Counting CT (PCCT) provide information about the examined tissue at two/multiple energy levels and therefore offer the possibility to calculate (virtual) monoenergetic images at different energy levels, virtual non-contrast images (VNC), material specific images such as iodine maps and images indicating the atomic number of the scanned...
Neutron depth profiling (NDP) is an analytical technique used to determine the amount and distribution of light elements in materials. This method is beneficial for the study of thin films and surface layers. A sample is exposed to a thermal neutron beam in a vacuum chamber, and the emitted charged particles lose energy while passing through the material. The energy lost depends on the...
Particle therapy has many advantages over conventional photon therapy, particularly for treating deep-seated solid tumours due to its greater conformal energy deposition achieved in the form of the Bragg peak (BP). Successful treatment with protons and heavy ions depends largely on knowledge of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the radiation produced by primary and secondary...
Radiation therapy with ions has been used for cancer treatments showing high dose conformity while sparing surrounding organs at risk and healthy tissue. For such treatments, synchrotrons are used to produce pencil-like ion beams, which are magnetically deflected laterally and modulated in range to cover the entire cancer volume [1]. As the beam extraction is in terms of spills at a fixed beam...
Introduction: Ion beam radiotherapy (IBR) can provide a depth dose distribution with a low dose in the entrance channel and a high dose in the tumor region due to the characteristic peak in the depth-dose curve of ions, called Bragg Peak. This results in a high dose concentration in the tumor and sparing of surrounding organs allowing a more accurate treatment compared to conventional...
The future generation of radiation detectors is more and more demanding on timing performance for a wide range of applications, in particular for time-of-flight (TOF) techniques in PET cameras.
There is in particular a consensus for gathering Europe's multi-disciplinary academic and industrial excellence around the ambitious challenge to develop a 10 ps TOF PET scanner (TOFPET). The goal is...
We will present an overview the development of a series of detectors in the SparkPix family, designed to match the increased repetition rate of LCLS-II. Each detector is customized to meet the specific requirements of different experiments, and dedicated information extraction engines are integrated into each SparkPix ASIC to enable frame rates up to 1 MHz. The article discusses the overall...
Compared with conventional X-ray radiation therapy, carbon-ion beam radiotherapy reduces the dose to the healthy tissue around a tumor thanks to the escalating dose at the Bragg peak. We developed a tracking system for secondary radiation from carbon-ion beams based on seven modules of four Timepix3 detectors (“quad module”). The tracking system measures the secondary radiation of different...
Some medical and industrial X-ray imaging applications need to reconstruct an image on a flexible surface, so they use photographic film rather than electronic detectors. Current flat-panel X-ray imaging detectors are difficult to adapt to these applications. We will present the FleX-RAY project, which aims to create an electronic X-ray detector with the flexibility of photographic film,...
Soft X-rays (in the range of 200-2000 eV) are of great interest for imaging applications for a large variety of sectors. These include: imaging of organic samples, e.g., in the “water window” (between C and O, K-edges: 277 eV to 525 eV), anomalous scattering experiments around many K-edges of light elements, and L-edges of 3d transition metals (relevant to magnetic and superconducting...
In the past few years, two design innovations have radically changed the performance of silicon detectors and turned silicon sensors into high-resolution timing detectors, fit to meet the very demanding requirement of future 4D trackers. In this presentation, I will review the performance improvements that these two design innovations, low-gain (LGAD) and resistive read-out (RSD) [1], have...
Soft x-ray photon science at free-electron laser (FEL) and synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities plays a vital role in many research fields. With light sources advancing and upgrades such as SLS 2.0 (PSI, Switzerland) and LCLS-II (Stanford University, USA) on the horizon, detector systems that meet the requirements of high-performance x-ray science at next generation sources are becoming a...
In the passive CMOS Strips Project, strip sensors were designed and produced at LFoundry in 150 nm technology, with an additional backside processing from IZM Berlin. Up to five individual reticules were connected by stitching at the foundry in order to obtain the typical strip lengths required for the LHC Phase-II upgrade of ATLAS or CMS trackers. After dicing, sensors were tested in a probe...
The HASPIDE project aims to investigate the use of a-Si:H as a material for detecting different types of ionizing radiation in applications like radiation flux measurement, dosimetry, and measurement of ionizing radiation in the spatial environment. The demand for radiation-resistant detectors capable of high dynamic range and precise measurement of fluxes is increasing and a-Si:H thanks to...
The Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) semiconductor, initially developed for solar cells, is expected to have high radiation tolerance with a recovery of radiation damage with the compensation of the defects by ions and would shed new light on the use for particle detector and camera under the high radiation environment.
In this talk, results of Xe ion irradiation will be presented.
The CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) technology combines sensitive volume and front-end readout logic in the same piece of silicon. Invented in the ‘90s as an imaging device, only in the last decade MAPS achieved the radiation tolerance, power consumption and integration time which are required to equip tracking detectors for high-energy physics experiments.
The first example of...
The Artemis I mission of November 22 marks the start of the NASA Artemis program to resume lunar exploration. It launched the Orion spacecraft into cis-lunar space on November 16th 2022 for 25 days before returning to Earth December 11th. During this mission the radiation levels and particle fluxes inside the crew cabin of the (unmanned) Orion spacecraft were measure by the NASA “HERA”...
Over the past twenty-five years, the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has observed an annual modulation signal that is consistent with a dark matter explanation. Unfortunately, in a standard halo scenario, this observation is contradicted by the null-results of numerous experiments utilizing different target materials. In order to perform a true, model-independent investigation of the DAMA/LIBRA result,...
Hybrid Pixel Detectors (HPDs) have been widely adopted for diffraction-based modalities in electron microscopy thanks to their high frame rates (> 1 kHz) and large dynamic range. However, they are less suitable for imaging applications because of their poor spatial resolution due to relatively large pixels (≥ 25 μm) and to the multiple scattering of high-energy electrons (> 100 keV) in the...
X-ray observation covering a wide field of view with a high sensitivity is essential in searching for an electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational wave events. A combination of Lobster-eye optics (LEO) and a large-area CMOS sensor is an ideal instrument to achieve this goal. Furthermore, thanks to the light weight of LEO, it can be installed on a small platform such as a CubeSat.
SEAGULL...
Speckle-based imaging (SBI) is an advanced X-ray technique that enables measuring phase and dark-field signals in addition to conventionally accessible absorption signals [1]. SBI uses random modulators such as sandpapers that, placed at a proper propagation distance from the detector, produce a reference speckle pattern. The technique requires the acquisition of two images; the first with the...
Autoradiography, an imaging technique providing high resolution two-dimensional images of radioactive emissions, serves as a critical tool in the detection and monitoring of radioactivity from various samples (e.g., radiopharmaceutical, geological, environmental, etc.). For example, during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, phosphor screen autoradiography was employed to...
The Horizon 2020 MONOLITH ERC Advanced project aims at producing a monolithic silicon pixel ASIC with 50μm pixel pitch and picosecond-level time stamping. The two main ingredients of the project are fast and low-noise SiGe BiCMOS electronics and a novel sensor concept, the Picosecond Avalanche Detector (PicoAD). The PicoAD uses a patented [1] multi-PN junction to engineer the electric field...
The semiconductor pixel detectors of the Timepix family provide position-, time- and directional-sensitive spectrometry for high-resolution wide-range spectral tracking of single particles [1]. These properties are valuable also for inspection and as testing probe of properties and homogeneity of radiation response and charge collection of the semiconductor sensor. The hybrid architecture of...
Gallium arsenide is extensively studied for about seven decades as an excellent material for semiconductor lasers, LEDs, and microwave electronics. GaAs has noticeable advantages over silicon and Cd(Zn)Te for radiation detectors. Particularly GaAs has higher electron mobility compared to Si and Cd(Zn)Te; higher average atomic number compared to Si; and lower probability and energy of the...
The hybrid pixel detectors are powerful technologies for the radiation imaging. Sensors and ASICs can be improved for performance in the individual processes. In particular, photon counting ASICs are revolutionizing various applications. We developed a cadmium telluride (CdTe) pixel detector (WERPAD: Wide Energy Range Pixel Array Detector). Dual energy and energy dispersive X-ray diffractions...
DECTRIS Ltd. was founded as a spin-off of Paul Scherrer Institut in 2006. At this time synchrotron and laboratory X-ray science were severely detector limited. The noise-free, high frame and count-rate performance of Hybrid Photon Counting (HPC) detectors not only overcame these limitations but has transformed X-ray science. In combination with an ever-increasing source brightness, improved...
MÖNCH is a hybrid pixel detector featuring 25 μm pixel pitch and analogue readout for X-ray imaging at synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities. Sub-pixel spatial resolution has been demonstrated using charge sharing and interpolation algorithms [1]. The current prototype version, MÖNCH0.4, features 19 different pixel architectures to assess the design choices and components for an optimised...
Research at the frontier of particle physics often requires the search for phenomena of extremely low probability of occurrence, known as "rare events". One such search is for the hypothetical particles that may compose the mysterious dark matter (DM) of the Universe, such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) or axions. These low-energy events with faint probability of occurrence...
Traditional X-ray scanning systems for cargo use ionising radiation which can be harmful to operators and the environment and requires shielding. Fully passive muon tomography is a promising alternative or a complementary approach to X-ray scanners. Muon tomography is a non-invasive technique that uses naturally occurring cosmic-ray muons and their scattering in various materials to create...
In nuclear decommissioning projects, localising and characterizing hotspots is critical to prevent risks to workers and the environment, especially in the presence of high dose rates. Manual radiological measurements are commonly used for hotspot identification, but they can be time-consuming, inefficient, and pose potential risks to operators. Compared to using classical measurement devices,...
RIPTIDE is a new detector concept aiming to track fast neutrons. It is based on neutron-proton elastic collisions inside a plastic scintillator, where the neutron momentum can be measured by imaging the scintillation light [1-3]. More in detail, by stereoscopically imaging the recoil-proton tracks, the proposed apparatus provides neutron spectrometry capability, and enable the online analysis...
X-Ray imaging techniques at synchrotron facilities often rely on hybrid pixel detectors. They consist of photon-counting devices encompassing a photo-active semiconductor sensor integrated with a pulse processing Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) capable of performing input pulse counting along a pixelated array of discrete 55 x 55 µm counting units. Recently, our group published...
Gastrointestinal (GI) foreign bodies occur when pets consume items that are nondigestible and will not readily pass through their stomach or intestines. Traditional radiography has been widely used to detect GI foreign bodies in pets. However, particularly, detecting low-density GI foreign bodies such as wood, plastic, clothing, and sticks is often difficult in conventional absorption-based...
Medical linear accelerators are used to treat patients by irradiating X-rays and electron beams. Electron beams deliver most of their energy to the skin surface due to their short range. Radiation therapy uses these characteristics to treat superficial tumors such as skin cancer, breast cancer, and head and neck cancer. Since accurate dose delivery is required for such electron beam treatment,...
Since Roentgen's discovery of X-rays, anode angulation technique has been widely used in medical X-ray tubes to reduce the focal spot size and transmit sufficient X-rays through the anode. Unfortunately, this technique inevitably produces the so-called shift-variant image blur that causes the focal spot to have a different shape, depending on the position of the detector plane [1, 2]. This...
Chest radiography is the most routinely used X-ray imaging technique for screening and diagnosing lung and chest diseases, such as lung cancer and pneumonia. However, the clinical interpretation of the hidden and obscured anatomy in chest X-ray images remains challenging because of the bony structures overlapping the lung area. Thus, multi-perspective imaging with a high radiation dose is...
The electromagnetic emission from astronomical sources in the MeV-energy band (0.1 to 100 MeV) is exceedingly difficult to detect – both due to low flux, and the fact that photons may penetrate significant thicknesses of material without interacting. However, in an astrophysical context, photons in this energy band carry specific and valuable information about gamma-ray lines that originate...
In the industrial sector, commonly used non-destructive testing techniques include ultrasonic testing (UT), radiographic testing (RT), penetration testing (PT), magnetic testing (MT), and other methods. These techniques have undergone significant development, particularly in real-time testing, low cost, high efficiency, and high precision, with the concomitant development and release of novel...
Radiations in the terahertz and infrared spectrum have proven useful in practical applications such as security screening, medical imaging, and wireless communication [1,2,3]. Many of these applications would greatly benefit from practical and compact detectors capable of working at room temperature, capturing tens of images per second and providing a low-medium number of pixels (typically...
This contribution describes a new Timepix3 [1] multi-layer detector setup that is part of a spectrometer for the measurement of anomalies in angular correlation of electrons and positrons internally produced in excited 8Be and 4He [2].
Six detector layers are arranged hexagonally in the new design. There are some unique requirements that had to be addressed, including the capacity to operate...
For the Wide Field Imager of the Athena X-ray space telescope, a DEpleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor (DEPFET) sensor was chosen. In a dedicated development phase, the DEPFET has been optimised for the mission objectives. ESA’s Athena mission has been designed to investigate the hot and energetic universe, represented by the large-scale structures of galaxy clusters and the densest...
We have development alpha dust monitor with a red or infrared emitting scintillators, and the scintillation properties were investigated for Ce:Y3(Mgx Al5-2x Six)O12 (x=0.0, 0.5, 2.0) crystals were grown by the micro-pulling-down method.Ce-doped Y3(Mg2 Al Si2)O12 had an emission wavelength of 620...
The Timepix3 ASIC readout chip [1] has already proven great results and benefits for a lot of projects [2, 3, 4]. It was used as a radiation monitor in the ATLAS Experiment (CERN) [5, 6], its good performance in various low-power modes [7] was also demonstrated. However, the utilization of a higher number (well synchronized) of Timepix3 detectors in environments with large research...
Neutron radiation effects on semiconductor detectors have long been investigated, as it offers a more complete understanding of the amount of damage to which such sensors can be subjected while operating them under extreme experimental conditions. The competition between ionizing (IEL) and non-ionizing energy losses (NIEL) was described theoretically through partition functions, which are in...
Nuclear medicine imaging is an important non-invasive technique in medical care for obtaining information inside the body by detecting radiation emitted from within the body to the outside and visualizing its distribution. In this study, we developed a new nuclear medicine imaging technique that combines magnetic field and RI imaging by utilizing the characteristic that the emission angle of...
As more synchotrons and X-ray free electron lasers move towards using high (> 20 keV) energy X-rays, there is an increased need for efficient, large area, high-speed X-ray detectors for use at these facilities. High-Z sensors, such as GaAs:Cr, are preferable to Si in detectors of high-energy photons, due to their increased stopping power and therefore improved efficiency at higher energies. ...
p-terphenyl crystals were grown by the self-seeding vertical Bridgman technique, and its scintillation properties were investigated for fast neutron scintillator applied in high temperature condition around 400K. light outputs were approximately 9,000 photons/(5.5-MeV alpha) and 19,000 photons/MeV for alpha-ray and gamma-ray excitation, respectively. we embedded a p-terphenyl pixel...
Radiation monitor is an important technique for the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) with safety, and the internal exposure of workers who inhale alpha-emitting dust, such as plutonium dioxide particles, in nuclear facilities is a crucial matter for human protection from radiation. Detailed information on the radiation dose distribution and alpha-emitting...
This work presents SpacePix3, an improved version of the SpacePix2 ASIC [1]. It is a novel MAPS sensor developed for soft advanced space dosimetry fabricated in a 180 nm PDSoI CMOS process. The sensitive area is a matrix of 64×64 pixels with a 60 μm pitch. The detection diode is integrated in a handle wafer, with the depletion depth of approximately 35 μm at -150 V bias. The signal is...
We present preliminary results of a novel submarine gamma imager (SUGI) based on pixelated CdZnTe detector modules. The instrument, mounted on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), has been tested in a series of field deployments performed at the hydrothermal fields of the island of Milos, Greece. The analysis of the collected data demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument being developed,...
With an incidence of 1 - 4 per 100,000 habitants in the western world, glioblastoma is the most common primary malignant brain tumour [1]. Significant advances have been made in our understanding of the pathophysiology of glioblastoma over the past decade, however, glioblastoma remains an incurable disease with a median survival time after diagnosis of approximately 15 months [2]. Moreover,...
Speckle-based imaging (SBI) is a multi-modal X-ray technique that gives access to attenuation, phase-contrast, and dark-field signals. The signal retrieval with the Unified Modulated Pattern Analysis (UMPA) algorithm is based on the modulation of a reference speckle pattern generated from a sandpaper when a sample is inserted in the beam. By stepping the diffuser or the sample transversely to...
In the field of security and defense, the detection of special nuclear materials and other radioactive materials requires the use of neutron and gamma-ray detection systems. Silicon photomultipliers have been employed in these detectors due to their advantages of being lightweight, compact, and low power consuming. Accurate identification of neutron and gamma-ray pulses from these detectors...
Dedicated to the control of radiation on industrial, research and civil sites, the portal monitors produced by Bertin Technologies, automatically detects radioactive source carried by trucks, cars, and trains. An
alarm classification can discriminate natural and artificial radiation.
The research and development division is working on the detection at low energy, where the performances of...
This work explores coded aperture imaging methods using the MiniPIX system for high-resolution angular observations of energetic electrons (100s of keV to several MeV) in Earth’s radiation belts. Observing energetic electron pitch angle is critical to understanding energetic particle dynamics, and in particular, particle precipitation into the upper atmosphere.
We present a simulation...
Micro-computed tomography (µCT) is the gold standard for non-destructive 3D imaging of samples on the centimeter scale. Despite offering micrometric spatial resolution, conventional µCT provides limited detail visibility when applied to biological samples due to the small attenuation differences that exist among soft tissues. To overcome this limitation, highly absorbing contrast media are...
We present the development of a neutron and gamma ray spectrometer for possible use in terrestrial and planetary science. The spectrometer module is called the Cosmogenic Neutron Detector (CosmoNeD) and is based on a monolithic scintillator with a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array and an integrated readout electronics. The prototype is under development and evaluation for small neutron...
Mixed-radiation fields such as space radiation in LEO orbit, atmospheric cosmic rays, high-energy accelerator and particle radiotherapy environments can produce or contain neutrons as secondary radiation. The neutron energy spectrum can cover a wide range from keV level up to hundreds of MeV (referred as fast neutrons) in addition to a thermalized meV component. Their presence can contribute...
I will present the results of testing the coded-mask imaging technique for monitoring the range of proton beams during proton therapy. The objective was to investigate the performance of experimental imaging setups, each consisting of a structured tungsten collimator in the form of a Modified Uniformly Redundant Array (MURA) mask and a LYSO:Ce scintillation detector of fine granularity with...
Fourth-generation light sources, like free-electron lasers (FELs) and synchrotrons, have greatly advanced X-ray research in many fields. However, high-performance detector technology is needed to fully utilize these facilities. The PulXar system addresses these challenges by offering a range of tunable features for studying detector performance. It provides uniform X-ray illumination and has...
Single photon detection of fluorescent X-rays down to 452 eV with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 20 has been demonstrated using 25 um pitch iLGAD sensors, bump-bonded to a charge-integrating readout chip Moench. These iLGAD sensors combined with a thin entrance window developed in collaboration with FBK are optimized for soft X-ray detection by having an excellent quantum efficiency in...
Muography is a technique used for scanning by analysis of muon interaction with a target object. Our aim is to develop a portable gas sealed RPC detector prototypes for muography application and to test it for long-term operation to ensure gas stability. For this purpose, various experiments have been conducted such as the I-V curve (which gives information about the working voltage),...
There are four CANDU-type reactors under IAEA safeguards at the Wolsung site in South Korea; One of them (Wolsung unit 1) was permanently shut down on the 24th of December, 2019. A new spent-fuel verification system(IOVES) in our previous studies was developed to deal with problems of the existing instrument(OFPS), which has been used to re-verify spent-fuels of the CANDU-type reactors. A...
In recent years, X-ray imaging detectors in combination with scintillator screens have been widely used in digital x-ray imaging applications. These indirect X-ray imaging detectors are incorporated in the combination of a TFT or CMOS back plane array with different scintillation screens such as typical CsI and GOS materials. Some detectors can be applied with different scintillators in order...
Current commercially available therapeutic radiation beam energy detection sensors have excellent signal detection efficiency, but have characteristics in which stability is deteriorated due to the occurrence of micro-cracks in the detection sensor according to the change in incident beam energy. In addition, noise generated by the drift of remaining electron-hole pairs for which signal...
In the continuing search for dark matter, new and more complex technologies have been developed with increasing accuracy and background requirements. The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) detector combines two proven technologies: bubble chambers and liquid argon scintillator experiments. In order to reach the ultimate projected goal, a Seitz threshold of 100eV is required and...
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide-bandgap semiconductor that has recently become a topic of intensified interest in the HEP instrumentation community due to the availability of high-quality wafers from the power electronics industry. SiC features multiple advantageous material properties over silicon. It is insensitive to visible light, hypothesized to be more radiation hard, and has much lower...
Introduction: In particle radiotherapy it is even more important to precisely align the patient with the treatment beams than in the conventional photon radiotherapy. Currently two orthogonal X-ray projections are used in clinics for patient positioning. We developed a unique method to perform such alignment of the patient with the beam based on radiography with helium ion beams (αRad). The...
In this report we present the results from the two extensive campaigns at the ELI Beamlines, ELI ERIC, on the TI-LGAD prototypes from the TI-LGAD RD50 run production. The focus has been given to the study of the inter-pad region and to the inter-pad distance (IPD) measurements. The TI-LGAD prototypes with the one trench are compared to those with the two tranches. Also, untypical UFSD Type 10...
The ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) [1] at CERN will undergo an upgrade during the LHC long shutdown 3, in which the three innermost tracking layers will be replaced. This upgrade, named the Inner Tracking System 3 (ITS3) [2], employs stitched wafer-scale Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors 280 mm in length fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology thinned to < 50 μm and bent to form truly...
Effective atomic number (Zeff) is a critical parameter in radiation therapy and nondestructive testing applications. Although dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) is widely utilized for the determination of Zeff, it is associated with several limitations, including increased patient exposure and substantial equipment costs. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel approach that...
Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an efficient X-ray imaging modality that can reconstruct a wide area with single scan, compared to multi-detector CT. However, in CBCT, more scatters produced through the object reach detector surface, resulting in the reduction of image contrast. Recently, to address this problem, JPI healthcare Co. in Korea developed a prototype two-dimensional...
The recently developed Low-Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD) technology has gained growing interest within the high-energy physics (HEP) community, thanks to its capability of internal signal amplification that improves the particle detection [1]. Since the next generation of HEP experiments will require tracking detectors able to efficiently operate in environments where expected fluences will...
In recent years, digital X-ray imaging detectors with indirect detection technology have been widely used in many medical imaging applications such as radiography, fluoroscopy and cone-beam CT. These indirect X-ray imaging detectors are based on the combination of a thin film transistor (TFT) array with several scintillating screens such as typical CsI, GOS materials. Currently, dual-energy...
Due to their unique properties, nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted significant attention in various research fields. The NCs are classified into 0D quantum dots (QDs), 1D nanowires (NWs), and 2D nanoplatelets (NPLs) depending on their structures. Especially, 2D NPLs have the advantage of restricting quantum confinement effects only in the z-axis, unlike other NCs. Furthermore, NPLs composed of...
Backscatter X-ray imaging techniques are sensitive to organic materials (i.e., low-Z elements) due to a larger Compton scattering cross-section than that of other photon interactions. Therefore, it has the potential to be used as a security screening system to detect organic compounds, such as drugs and explosives. Additionally, it is possible to make a compact device because the X-ray...
As a demand for lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells in industry continues to grow, more accurate inspection techniques are required for ensuring quality assurance (QA) during production. Detecting defects accurately, such as metallic foreign matters and crack, is important for inline QA testing, where both fast-processing speed and high accuracy are essential. Particularly, in the post-packaging...
Radiography is one of the most commonly used diagnostic tools in veterinary practice and, particularly, denoising is one of the important image processing tasks. Robust noise removal will improve the image quality of diagnosis. There are many state-of-the-art noise reduction methods that have been studied in the image processing literature. Nevertheless, no algorithm that can robustly remove...
The irradiation study of silicon diodes was carried out in order to evaluate the effects of gamma-irradiation on p-type silicon. Three types of n-in-p diodes from different manufacturers were studied. The diodes had comparable active area and thickness but different initial resistivities and oxygen concentration. Thanks to that we were able to determine how different initial parameters...
Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) is a common technique in electron microscopy to identify the chemical composition of samples. The standard method for analyzing the measurement data is semi-empirical, where the necessary correction factors have been determined decades ago using detectors much less sensitive than current ones.
This work shows that the Geant4[1] and AllPix2[2]...
Introduction. Structuring the x-ray beam into a 2D beamlet array, as shown in Fig. 1, enables three-modal x-ray micro-computed tomography (μ-CT). The beamlets are created by placing an amplitude modulator (mask) with round apertures upstream of the sample [1,2]. Images with the following contrasts can be obtained: attenuation, refraction, and ultra small-angle scattering. Images with...
For the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants, a real-time dose-rate monitor under the high dose-rate situation is required to remove the debris remaining inside the plants. We have proposed a dose-rate monitor consisting of a scintillator, optical fiber, and CCD spectrometer. Since an over 100-m long optical fiber is used, some noises (“fiber noise”) such as scintillation...
This study proposes a new signal multiplexing method for molecular imaging systems used in nuclear medicine, which can reduce the number of readout channels by utilizing charge reset amplifiers and a deep learning model. The results show that the proposed method can reduce 16 readout channels to one without distorting the original signal, using charge reset preamplifier and deep learning...
Photon-counting computed tomography (PC-CT) is a type of next-generation X-ray CT system for medical applications. It enables quantitative evaluation, such as concentration estimation, which is not possible with conventional CT systems. This is because the number and energy information of the individual incident X-rays can be obtained by reading them out in pulse form. By utilizing this...
Two-dimensional (2D) X-ray inspection systems have been widely used for homeland and aviation security, but they still have limitations in recognizing 3D shape of the hidden threats. Hence, there has been increasing demand for computed tomography (CT) scanner for carry-on baggage screening. In a previous study [1], we designed a new stationary CT baggage scanner with compressed-sensing (CS)...
Positron probes are widely used to accurately localize malignant tumors by directly detecting positrons emitted by positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals that accumulate in malignant tumors. However, the conventional method of direct positron detection cannot distinguish some γ-rays, resulting in misidentification of γ-rays as positrons and increasing the error rate of positron detection. In...
Recently, a metal-oxide thin-film transistor (TFT)-based flat-panel x-ray detector has been paid attention to its fast readout time and low-noise characteristic. We analyze empirically the signal and noise characteristics of an indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFT-based detector in comparison with those of the conventional hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) TFT-based detectors. We compare...
For the application to megavoltage (MV) or mega-electron volt (MeV) imaging, we investigate theoretically and empirically the signal and noise characteristics of thin gadolinium oxysulfide phosphor detectors. For several phosphor detector designs, we perform the Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for various MV x-ray spectra from linear accelerators and gamma-rays (ranging from hundreds of keV to a...
A sandwich-like, double-layered detector can perform dual-energy imaging (DEI) at a single shot of x-ray exposure without object-motion artifacts. The energy separation between the measurements from two (front and rear) detector layers can be further adjusted by inserting an x-ray beam-attenuating material between them. However, the design of the interdetector filter highly impacts the dose...
The eye lens is one of the most radiation sensitive organs of the human body [1]. Therefore, the maximally allowed organ equivalent dose to the eye lens per year for occupationally exposed personnel has been reduced from 150 mSv/a to 20 mSv/a within a 5-year average with the dose not exceeding 50 mSv in any year [2]. Active eye lens dosimeters are of need in interventional radiology and...
The Passive Gamma Emission Tomography (PGET) device was approved by the IAEA for spent nuclear fuel safeguards inspections at the end of 2017. It is based on a collimator, consisting of a linear array of narrow slits with a pitch of 4 mm, with a relatively small CZT (cadmium-zinc-telluride) gamma ray detector behind each slit. Larger detectors would have a higher probability for detecting the...
Transmission X-ray security scanners are used to detect the smuggling of contraband articles, including weapons, narcotics, and explosives for homeland security. Current X-ray scanners use fixed tube voltages (i.e., 160 kVp); hence, it has a limitation in detecting thinly coated and/or low-density objects. To overcome this limitation, we are designing an X-ray scanner applying a variable tube...
The pile-up phenomenon can cause distortion in the recorded data and make it difficult to accurately measure the properties of individual radiation events. This issue can lead to an underestimation of the quantitative analysis, especially in radioisotope identification through gamma-ray spectroscopy. Recently, deep learning-based studies for pile-up correction have been conducted. Those...
Here we demonstrate high-speed CT down to 200 ms for battery inspection suitable for in-line use in factories. The combination of high-brightness MetalJet x-ray sources combined with high frame rate photon counting detectors enables 3D inspection that can keep up with production lines. CT inspection is a promising approach to improve quality assurance in the fast-growing battery industry,...
We present the first experimental results of the 4D-PET scanner, a novel system for neurological studies. The 4D-PET detector geometry consists of a cylinder with 20 super-modules.
The attached abstract summarizes the results obtained both at super-module level (experimental validation) and system level (simulated data using the measured performance to model its response).
These results...
Mammography is widely used as a screening procedure for breast cancer. However, its cancer detection sensitivity is limited in patients with dense breast tissue [1]. Molecular breast imaging (MBI) using a pair of planar detector arrays has been shown to have high sensitivity even in dense breast tissue [2]. Nonetheless, long imaging time and radiation dose, that is higher than mammography,...
The progress in high-energy astrophysics is driven by two engines: deepening and development of the science objectives, and the progress in the measurement techniques, supported by the available detectors. The detectors in astrophysical instruments carry out 3 basic kinds of measurements: timing, spectral, and position. However, in most cases, these must all be accomplished within one...
Today, cancer treatment with ion beam is well established and studied. This method allows to deposit the maximum dose to the tumor and minimize the damage of healthy tissue, due to the Bragg peak of the ion energy deposition near the end of the particle range. During the treatment it is possible to provide volumetric dose delivery by changing the particle energy (penetration depth) and...
In nuclear and high-energy physics research and in radiation related applications the measurement of the deposited energy and direction of charged particles may be needed with high discrimination against background and unwanted radiation. This task can be challenging in particular in mixed-radiation fields containing light charged particles (e.g., electrons, muons) and heavy charged particles...
A detection technology for thermal neutrons combining hybrid double gap timing resistive plates chambers lined with a 10B enriched solid neutron converter (10B-RPCs) is being developed at LIP-Coimbra [1]. Our previous studies performed on neutron beamlines at ILL (Institut Laue-Langevin) and FRMII (Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz) have already demonstrated the feasibility of...
