Preliminary studies using silicon strip detectors in digital autoradiography

Summary form only given, as follows. Studies using commercially available 1-D silicon strip detectors (SSDs) for applications in digital autoradiography using beta and photon imaging have been conducted. Initial results confirm the potential SSDs in autoradiography. A new detection system consists of a 112-channel 1-D SSD of pitch 250 μm interfaced to a microcomputer containing analog-to-digital converter and DMA boards for high-speed data acquisition, digitization, analysis, and real-time display. Betas or photons traversing the detector and interacting in a plastic scintillator below may be used as a trigger to enable analog data readout. The low noise of the system allows high-efficiency quantitative imaging with ³²P and iodine isotopes, commonly used in autoradiography. A series of 1-D projections produced by rotating the object and imaging are reconstructed into 2-D images. Applications such as thin tissue specimens and skin tumor imaging of radioisotope distributions are expected to benefit significantly from this approach