Physical characterization of a discrete pixel gamma camera

Abstract

The development of new semiconductor materials for the last twenty years has led to the appearance of compounds suchas CdTe (Cadmium Telluride) or CZT (Cadmium-Zinc Telluride), which have application in c-ray detectors in nuclear medicine.These new semiconductors have, among other properties that make them interesting, an excellent spatial and energy resolution,can operate at room temperature and high efficiency. The aim of this work is the physical characterization of the CdTe basedMINICAM 2 (EURORAD) portable semiconductor gamma camera, subjecting it to some of the NEMA standard tests. We studiedthe spatial and energy resolution, uniformity and sensitivity, using different radioisotopes. The obtained results showed a higherspatial and energy resolution of the camera compared to the NaI(Tl) scintillator crystals, while the performances were similarin uniformity and sensitivity tests.