Photon Counting Readout Pixel Array in 0.18-μm CMOS technology for On-line Gamma-ray Imaging of~(103)Palladium Seeds for Permanent Breast Seed Implant (PBSI) Brachytherapy

摘要

Permanent breast seed implant (PBSI) brachytherapy technique was recently introduced as an alternative to high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy and involves the permanent implantation of radioactive~(103)Palladium seeds into the surgical cavity of the breast for cancer treatment. To enable accurate seed implantation, this research introduces a gamma camera based on a hybrid amorphous selenium detector and CMOS readout pixel architecture for real-time imaging of ~(103)Palladium seeds during the PBSI procedure. A prototype chip was designed and fabricated in 0.18-μm n-well CMOS process. We present the experimental results obtained from this integrated photon counting readout pixel.