Design Considerations for a New Solid-State Gamma-Camera: SOLSTICE

This paper presents an alternative to conventional gamma camera. The proposed system is based on the combination of a new detection material – CZT and a new acquisition geometry – 1D detector with slat collimator. The slat collimator offers a better compromise to the usual sensitivity-resolution tradeoff. Solid-state detection offers significantly improved energy resolution. The combination of the two elements, and the development of better reconstruction tools, has the potential of bringing a new level of performance to nuclear medicine imaging. The targeted system performance includes a spatial resolution of 5mm FWHM at 10 cm from the detector surface and an energy resolution better than 5% FWHM, both at 140 keV. While the results are still preliminary and incomplete, they more than justify further investigation.