SensL's silicon photomultiplier enables PET/MRI brain imaging
DECEMBER 15, 2008--SensL (Cork, Ireland and San Jose, CA) says its silicon photomultiplier technology is enabling construction of PET/MRI brain imaging systems at two major international institutions: Samsung Medical Center at Sungkyunkwan University (Seoul, Korea) and the Department of Radiology/Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford University (Stanford, CA, USA). Both institutions will integrate SensL's SPMArray (position sensitive / multi-anode silicon photomultiplier array) into their PET/MRI systems. SensL says SPMArray, an alternative to standard photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), is the first commercially available, solid-state, large array detector based on silicon photomultiplier technology.
"The SPMArray has been proven to have distinctive advantages over competing PMT, APD, and CZT [cadmium zinc telluride] based systems for PET/MRI," said founder Carl Jackson, Head of Sales at SensL. PET/MR, an emerging multi-modality technique, shows promise to improve the characterization of certain cancers as well as neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and enable advanced treatment monitoring.
"Our products have reached a high level of maturity in the last year and we are now well poised to bring real solutions to our customers. We are making very good inroads into PET/MRI and we would look to use this success to help us enter other markets with our solid-state technology. This confirms the viability of our technology and we see the end of life for vacuum tube based PMT detectors in many applications and we are pleased to work with our customers to enable this," added Jackson.
SensL, which specializes in low light sensing solutions, says the SPMArray will be of particular interest to developers of detector systems for applications such as PET, gamma camera, and radiation detection for medical and security purposes requiring very sensitive, low-light detector arrays.
More information:
SensL's SPMArray
Posted by Barbara G. Goode, [email protected].