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:
Dec. 15, 2009
Filed:
Sep. 15, 2006
Steven Cooke, Garfield Heights, OH (US);
Thomas Laurence, North Royalton, OH (US);
Steven Cooke, Garfield Heights, OH (US);
Thomas Laurence, North Royalton, OH (US);
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
A scintillator () includes radioactive elements which emit radiation of a characteristic energy, such as lutetium, which emits 202 keV and 307 keV γ-rays. The scintillators have light output levels that vary and photomultiplier tubes that respond to the light scintillations tend to drift. When a scanner () is not generating diagnostic images, the photomultiplier tubes detect scintillations from the lutetium 176 radiation. A self-calibration processor () adjusts the gain for each photomultiplier tube such that its output peak corresponds to 202 keV or 307 keV and adjusts a scaling factor for PMT outputs corresponding to each scintillator such that the output peaks have a common amplitude.