The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 26, 1995
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1994
Wai-Hoi Wong, Houston, TX (US);
Jorge Uribe, Manizales, CO;
Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A positron emission tomography camera is provided having an array of scintillation crystals placed adjacent other arrays to form an arcuate detection surface surrounding a patient area. Alternatively, the arrays may be placed in a planar configuration on opposing sides of the patient area. Either a three-dimensional image or a two-dimensional image can be formed from a patient's body placed within the patient area. Moreover, the edges between the arrays of crystals are offset in relation to the edges between the light detectors, allowing use of circular photomultiplier tubes instead of the more expensive square photomultiplier tubes. Each light detector is suitably positioned adjacent four adjacent quadrants of four respective arrays to detect radiation emitted from the four quadrants of each array. According to one aspect of the present invention, the crystals within the arrays are selectively polished and selectively bonded to adjacent crystals to present a cross-coupled interface which can tunably distribute light to adjacent light detectors. According to another aspect of the present invention, the crystal arrays are formed by optically bonding slabs of crystals (which may be optically treated for light control) into a 'pre-array' and then cross-cutting the 'pre-array' from one or more sides to form the final array. The grooves may be optically treated, such as with white reflective fillers, for further optical control within the array. In addition, optical jumpers may be coupled to the free end of the array to correct for decoding distortion.