An EDUGATE simulation toolkit based on the educational EasyPET

September 24th, 2021| |CAEN Experiments, Nuclear Imaging - PET, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity

EasyPET is a new concept of a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner using an innovative acquisition method based on two rotation axes for the movement of detector pairs. Due to its simplicity, it is suitable for education purposes, to teach students about the PET technology and its basic concepts, from the radiation detecting and analogue pulse analysis to the coincidence sorting and image reconstruction. The concept allows achieving high and uniform position resolution over the whole eld of view (FoV), by eliminating parallax errors due to the depth of interaction (DoI), which are typical of ring-based PET systems, so quality images are obtained even without state-of-the-art image reconstruction algorithms. The technology developed at the University of Aveiro with a patent-pending, is licensed to CAEN S.p.A, and included in the educational catalogue of the company. In this work, a simulation toolkit based in the Edugate platform was developed to simulate the EasyPET system. It can simulate all the physical aspects of the product, such us the scanning range, variable Field-of-View (FOV), scintillator energy resolution, coincidence time and energy window, among others. A simple image reconstruction algorithm based on Filtered-back-projection (FBP) is implemented. The toolkit allows a quick analysis in classroom of the simulation results. The platform was also used to study the new EasyPET 3D version, and a simulation of a NEMA NU 4-2008 IQ phantom was performed, demonstrating the capability of the platform not only for education purposes but also for research.

An Educational Experience with Linear Absorption Coefficient

September 24th, 2021| |CAEN Experiments, Gamma Spectroscopy, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity

In this paper is presented a simple procedure for evaluating the absorption coefficient of aluminum (Z = 13) using a gamma-emitting nuclide, highlighting the characteristics and limits that characterize the measurement. Using the educational kit caen, is possible to investigate the full potential of the adopted method. The results obtained give great confidence in the instruments and the aim of this work is to provide the first tools for conducting a good spectroscopic analysis.

SiPM Spectrometer: detection of γ‐ray

September 24th, 2021| |CAEN Experiments, Gamma Spectroscopy, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity

Even if a SiPM is able to detect very low light intensity, it can be used for detecting a large amount of light in radiation detection with scintillators. The CAEN Mini Spectrometer is based on a Hamamatsu 3×3 mm2 SiPM, model MPPC S10362‐33‐050C, coupled to a scintillating crystal. This sensor, with its 3600 cells, provides a wide dynamic range, allowing the building of a mini spectrometer. Its Dark Count Rate (DCR), due to the large amount of pixels, is one order of magnitude higher than that of the 1×1 mm2; its Dark Count Rate at 0.5 ph. is 3÷4 MHz: this is not a problem for the spectrometer application because we are not interested in counting photons, but in measuring the electrical charge of the large pulse obtained by the pixels signal overlap. A right threshold will remove all the spurious hits.

Applications of Digital Pulse Acquisition Systems and Software Defined Electronics (SDE) in Advanced Teaching Labs

September 24th, 2021| |CAEN Experiments, Cosmic Rays, Gamma Spectroscopy, Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity, Particle Physics, Particle Physics

The CAEN DT5790N is a digital acquisition system which houses two high voltage supplies and two highspeed (12bits, 250MHz) waveform (pulse digitizers. These in tandem with the use of post processing software combine to produce a Software Defined Electronics (SDE) system that can be used in several advanced teaching experiments. FPGAs and built-in software can be used to display the pulse waveform and produce a time-stamped output (4 ns intervals) in a text list for post processing, e.g via MATLAB, Python, LabView, ROOT, BASIC, etc. The SDE can than be reconfigured as neeeded and used to run many nuclear and other expermiments in an advances teaching lab course. This serves to expose students to modern state-of-the-art data acquisition technology. Experiments such as Fission Neutron, Time-of-Flight, Comptron Scattering, Co-60 Gamma Coincidence, Na-22 Gamma-Gamma Annighilation. Muon Lifetime, etc. are well suited for SDE. The SDE system also provides a very adaptive and cost-effective substitute for NIM or CAMAC electronics as SDE can be easily set up with only a single digitizer box and a computer for many different experiments. Typical data using the SDE application we have developed for several advanced teaching lab experiments will be shown. Several other digitizers similar to the CAEN unit are also available for SDE.

Spatial Resolution

Download printable version Difficult Execution Time Data Analysis Radioactive Sources No Yes Equipment SP5700/701 - EasyPET  22Na Radioactive source (recommended: 1/2 inch disc, 10 μCi) Purpose of the experiment Evaluation of the spatial resolution of a PET system composed of two detector modules. The main goal of the PET studies is to obtain

Two-dimensional Reconstruction of a Radioactive Source

Download printable version Difficult Execution Time Data Analysis Radioactive Sources No Yes Equipments SP5700/701 - EasyPET  22Na Radioactive source (recommended: 1/2 inch disc, 10 μCi) Purpose of the experiment Understanding the technique of the nuclear imaging and the setup optimization of the parameters by performing two-dimensional image reconstruction of 22Na radioactive source. Fundamentals

Positron Annihilation Detection

Download printable version Difficult Execution Time Data Analysis Radioactive Sources No Yes Equipment SP5700/701 - EasyPET  22Na Radioactive source (recommended: 1/2 inch disc, 10 μCi) Purpose of the experiment Positron annihilation detection by using a couple of detectors composed of a LYSO scintillating crystal coupled to a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM). Fundamentals The underlying

Basic Measurements: γ Spectroscopy and System Linearity

Download printable version DifficultExecution TimeData AnalysisRadioactive SourcesNoYes Equipments SP5701 - EasyPET  22Na Radioactive source (recommended: 1/2 inch disc, 10 μCi) Purpose of the experiment Gamma spectroscopy studies by using a gamma radioactive sources and by analysing the signals produced by the interaction of the gamma with one of the scintillating crystals of the system.

β-Radiation as a Method to Measure Paper Sheet Grammage and Thin Layer Thickness

Download printable version Difficult Execution Time Data Analysis Radioactive Sources No Yes Equipment SP5600D/AN - Educational Kit Beta Radioactive Source Purpose of the experiment Estimation of the instrument sensitivity in the measurement of thin layer thickness by beta particle attenuation. Fundamentals Beta attenuation represents a golden standard in the quality control of paper

β Radiation: Transmission through Matter

Download printable version Difficult Execution Time Data Analysis Radioactive Sources No Yes Equipment SP5600D/AN - Educational Beta Kit Beta Radioactive Source Purpose of the experiment Attenuation measurement of the intensity of β radioactive source as a function of the absorber thickness by using two absorber materials: aluminium and paper sheets. Fundamentals β-particle is