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:
Feb. 25, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 18, 2000
John F. Vesel, Kirtland, OH (US);
Micheal J. Petrillo, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
A nuclear medicine imaging device includes a radiation camera ( ) including a plurality of photo multiplier tubes ( ). Each photo multiplier tube ( ) is configured with an analog to digital converter ( ) which converts a detected scintillation event ( ) to sampled digital values. A storage device ( ) is preloaded with an estimator function which can be derived from a calibration scintillation events. A processor ( ) in communication with both the camera ( ) and the storage device ( ), detects an event and combines the digital values which are sampled together to arrive at a total area or energy of the scintillation event. Alternately, if a second pulse ( ) is detected before the first scintillation event ( ) has ended, the area combining (A ) of the first event is stopped and a pulse tail is estimated (A ) from the estimator functions stored. This estimated tail is then added to the combined data values taken until the time of pile-up. Additionally, the estimated tail (A ) is subtracted from the combined data values for the second scintillation event ( ).