Evaluation of Compton gamma camera prototype based on pixelated CdTe detectors

A proposed Compton camera prototype based on pixelated CdTe is simulated and evaluated in order to establish its feasibility and expected performance in real laboratory tests. The system is based on module units containing a 2 x 4 array of square CdTe detectors of 10 x 10 mm(2) area and 2 mm thickness. The detectors are pixelated and stacked forming a 3D detector with voxel sizes of 2 x 1 x 2 mm(3). The camera performance is simulated with Geant4-based Architecture for Medicine-Oriented Simulations(GAMOS) and the Origin Ensemble(OE) algorithm is used for the image reconstruction. The simulation shows that the camera can operate with up to 10(4) Bq source activities with equal efficiency and is completely saturated at 10(9) Bq. The efficiency of the system is evaluated using a simulated F-18 point source phantom in the center of the Field-of-View (FOV) achieving an intrinsic efficiency of 0.4 counts per second per kilobecquerel. The spatial resolution measured from the point spread function (PSF) shows a FWHM of 1.5 mm along the direction perpendicular to the scatterer, making it possible to distinguish two points at 3 mm separation with a peak-to-valley ratio of 8.