| Positron emission tomography (PET), because of its advanced ability to elucidate biological processes in vivo, is becoming a popular tool for both clinical and preclinical imaging. With the increasing demand of PET, there is also requirement of scanners with high spatial resolution and sensitivity. Although avalanche photodiodes (APDs) have proven to be successful for PET detector development, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have many advantages in terms of high gain at low bias voltage, very fast timing response, high detection efficiency, small recovery time and high single photon response which make them a potentially better fit for this application.;This thesis aims to investigate the potential of a light-sharing PET detector based on array of SiPMs. Initially, commercially available single SiPMs were studied before they were evaluated in an actual PET detector. After enough background information was obtained regarding the behavior of these single devices, we were able to realize a detector system comprising pixelated scintillator array readout by an array of SiPM of similar dimensions.;A prototype was built for evaluation purposes to obtain information about energy and spatial resolution. The detector had the capability to resolve pixels 1.5 mm apart very distinctly. The air gap between the silicon of the SiPM array and the glass window covering it facilitated traditional Anger-logic readout. The model can be used in the future with a continuous scintillator to analyze spatial resolution capabilities as the read-out electronics have the capability to compensate the low light levels. Future work may also involve use of arrays of SiPMs and readout electronics to develop MRI compatible scanner systems. |
