Detector

Scintillator

Medical physics

Telecommunications

Computer science

Physics

Medicine

Nuclear medicine

Positron emission tomography

arXiv (Cornell University)

In this contribution we present a new concept of the large ac- ceptance detector systems based on organic scintillators which may allow for simultaneous diagnostic of large fraction of the human body. Novelty of the concept lies in employing large blocks of polymer scintillators instead of crystals as detectors of annihilation quanta, and in using predominantly the timing of signals instead of their amplitudes. PET scanners are very expensive: average cost of the device with the necessary software, equipment and adaptation in the room amounts to about four million Euro. Therefore, in Poland there are only twelve such facilities, which is (as per the number of residents) twenty two times less than in the USA where there are currently over two thousand PET/CT scanners (1). Scanners purchased in Poland are largely the result of a dedicated government program called National Programme for Fighting Cancer (2) realized in recent years and it is utterly unrealistic for polish healthcare to reach the level of the USA in the next decades without a technological breakthrough which would allow for a drastic reduction in produc- tion cost of PET scanners. In this article we first describe briefly detection technique used in current PET modalities and then we present a new concept of TOF-PET detectors based on polymer scintillators promising significant reduction of costs of PET scanners.

TOF-PET detector concept based on organic scintillators