H3D INC — Department of Commerce SBIR Phase I: N/A

Description

A dual plane Compton imager prototype system with large volume pixelated CZT detectors will be built for spectrally resolved MeV gamma ray tomographic applications. These two planes will be operated at independent clocks and they will be synchronized via a common periodical pulse. The common periodical pulse is self-generated so it does not rely on external pulse generator. Each detector will be coupled with an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The ASIC will convert the gamma ray energy detected by the CZT detectors to a voltage signal. An in-house developed readout and processing electronics will translate the voltage signal to corresponding location and energy deposition information of each gamma ray interaction. This information will be used by 3D Compton imaging reconstruction algorithm to create a 3D map of the material of interest inside the under-test object. In order to achieve the best imaging performance for this application, various detector position configurations and reconstruction algorithms will be evaluated. The final prototype system with optimal reconstruction algorithm will be tested by resolving phantoms with different hydrogen mass concentration.