University of California

Bracco Diagnostics Inc.

James Howard McQuaid

Adrian D Nunn

Anthony D Lavietes

Paul Robert Steinmeyer

A radioisotope generator that releases a daughter radioisotope from radioactive decay of a corresponding parent isotope, such as aSr/Rb radioisotope generator orGe/Ga radioisotope generator, may be used to generate radioisotopes for medical imaging applications. In some examples, a gamma ray detector is positioned to detect gamma rays emanating from radioactive eluate flowing from the generator. Based on the detected gamma rays, an activity of the daughter radioisotope in the eluate and an activity of the parent radioisotope in the eluate may be determined. Depending on the application, the activity of the daughter radioisotope and the activity of the parent radioisotope may be determined in substantially real time, e.g., so that the eluate can be diverted from patient dosing based on determined activity information for the eluate.

Real time nuclear isotope detection

A low noise, low power consumption, compact, ambient temperature signal amplifier for a Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) radiation detector. The amplifier can be used within a larger system (e.g., including a multi-channel analyzer) to allow isotopic analysis of radionuclides in the field. In one embodiment, the circuit stages of the low power, low noise amplifier are constructed using integrated circuit (IC) amplifiers , rather than discrete components, and include a very low noise, high gain, high bandwidth dual part preamplification stage, an amplification stage, and an filter stage. The low noise, low power consumption, compact, ambient temperature amplifier enables the CZT detector to achieve both the efficiency required to determine the presence of radio nuclides and the resolution necessary to perform isotopic analysis to perform nuclear material identification. The present low noise, low power, compact, ambient temperature amplifier enables a CZT detector to achieve resolution of less than 3% full width at half maximum at 122 keV for a Cobalt-57 isotope source. By using IC circuits and using only a single 12 volt supply and ground, the novel amplifier provides significant power savings and is well suited for prolonged portable in-field use and does not require heavy, bulky power supply components.

Growing community of inventors

Livermore, CA, United States of America

James Howard McQuaid