Yamamoto Seiichi, Yoshino Masao, Nakanishi Kohei, Yogo Katsunori, Kamada Kei, Yoshikawa Akira, Kataoka Jun
Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Japan.
New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Tohoku University, Japan.
Appl Radiat Isot. 2024 Feb;204:111143. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111143. Epub 2023 Dec 12.
High-resolution and real-time imaging of particle ion trajectories is essential in nuclear medicine and nuclear engineering. One potential method to achieve high-resolution real-time trajectory imaging of particle ions involves utilizing an imaging system that integrates a scintillator plate with a magnifying unit and a cooled electron multiplying charge-coupled device (EM-CCD) camera. However, acquiring an EM-CCD camera might prove challenging due to the discontinuation of CCD sensor manufacturing by vendors. As an alternative imaging approach, a low-noise, high-sensitivity camera utilizing a cooled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor offers a promising solution for imaging particle ion trajectories. Yet, it remains uncertain whether CMOS-based cameras can perform as effectively as CCD-based cameras in capturing particle ion trajectories. To address these concerns, we conducted a comparative analysis of the imaging performance between a CMOS-based system and an EM-CCD-based system for capturing alpha particle trajectories. The results revealed that both systems could image the trajectories of alpha particle, but the spatial resolution with the CMOS-based camera exceeded that of the EM-CCD-based camera, primarily due to the smaller pixel size of the sensor. While the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the trajectory image from the CMOS-based camera initially lagged behind that from the EM-CCD-based camera, this disparity was mitigated by implementing binning techniques on the CMOS-based camera images. In conclusion, our findings suggest that a cooled CMOS camera could serve as a viable alternative for imaging particle ion trajectories.
粒子离子轨迹的高分辨率实时成像在核医学和核工程中至关重要。实现粒子离子高分辨率实时轨迹成像的一种潜在方法是利用一种成像系统，该系统将闪烁体板与放大单元以及冷却型电子倍增电荷耦合器件（EM-CCD）相机集成在一起。然而，由于供应商停止生产CCD传感器，获取一台EM-CCD相机可能具有挑战性。作为一种替代成像方法，使用冷却型互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）传感器的低噪声、高灵敏度相机为粒子离子轨迹成像提供了一种有前景的解决方案。然而，基于CMOS的相机在捕获粒子离子轨迹方面是否能像基于CCD的相机那样有效仍不确定。为了解决这些问题，我们对基于CMOS的系统和基于EM-CCD的系统在捕获α粒子轨迹方面的成像性能进行了对比分析。结果表明，两个系统都能对α粒子轨迹进行成像，但基于CMOS相机的空间分辨率超过了基于EM-CCD相机的空间分辨率，这主要是由于传感器的像素尺寸更小。虽然基于CMOS相机的轨迹图像的信噪比（SNR）最初落后于基于EM-CCD相机的轨迹图像，但通过对基于CMOS相机的图像实施合并技术，这种差距得到了缓解。总之，我们的研究结果表明，冷却型CMOS相机可作为粒子离子轨迹成像的一种可行替代方案。
