The purpose of the project is the development of a compact and high-resolution Anger camera to be used in clinical and research environments and which allows earlier and more reliable diagnosis of cancer diseases in specific applications, where high overall spatial resolution (less than 3 mm) and system compactness (less than 10x10 cm² field of view) are required.
The gamma camera is based on the well-established Anger architecture, where a collimator acts as a mechanical sieve for incoming gamma photons, a continuous scintillator uses the energy of each selectively passed gamma photon to generate visible photons and an array of photodetectors emits electric signals in response to the absorption of the visible photons.
The improvement of performances is based on the use of a particular type of photodetector, the Silicon Drift Detector (SDD), which has recently demonstrated to provide better performance with respect to the commonly used photomultiplier tubes. The SDDs photodetectors from PN Sensors are in production. The mechanical system for the detectors and the cooling system is outlined and it is almost ready for a first prototype. An ASIC with the first part of the read out electronic is under testing while the other part of the electronic is under design and simulation.