Encoding methods matching the 16×16 pixel CZT detector of a coded aperture gamma camera

With the advancements in nuclear energy,methods that can accurately obtain the spatial information of radioactive sources have become essential for nuclear energy safety.Coded aperture imaging technology is widely used because it provides two-dimensional distribution information of radioactive sources.The coded array is a major component of a coded aperture gamma camera,and it affects the key performance parameters of the camera.Currently,commonly used coded arrays such as uniformly redundant arrays(URAs)and modified uniformly redundant arrays(MURAs)have prime numbers of rows or columns and may lead to wastage of detector pixels.A 16×16 coded array was designed on the basis of an existing 16×16 multi-pixel position-sensitive cadmium zinc telluride detector.The digital signal-to-noise(SNR)ratio of the point spread function at the center of the array is 25.67.Furthermore,Monte Carlo camera models and experimental devices based on rank-13 MURA and rank-16 URA have been constructed.With the same angular resolution,the field size of view under rank-16 URA is 1.53 times that of under rank-13 MURA.Simulations(Am-241,Co-57,Ir-192,Cs-137)and experiments(Co-57)are conducted to compare the imaging performance between rank-16 URA and rank-13 MURA.The contrast-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed image of the rank-16 array is great and only slightly lower than that of rank-13 MURA.However,as the photon energy increases,the gap becomes almost negligible.

Piecewise spectrally band-pass for compressive coded aperture spectral imaging

Coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging(CASSI) has been discussed in recent years. It has the remarkable advantages of high optical throughput, snapshot imaging, etc. The entire spatial-spectral data-cube can be reconstructed with just a single two-dimensional(2D) compressive sensing measurement. On the other hand, for less spectrally sparse scenes,the insufficiency of sparse sampling and aliasing in spatial-spectral images reduce the accuracy of reconstructed threedimensional(3D) spectral cube. To solve this problem, this paper extends the improved CASSI. A band-pass filter array is mounted on the coded mask, and then the first image plane is divided into some continuous spectral sub-band areas. The entire 3D spectral cube could be captured by the relative movement between the object and the instrument. The principle analysis and imaging simulation are presented. Compared with peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR) and the information entropy of the reconstructed images at different numbers of spectral sub-band areas, the reconstructed 3D spectral cube reveals an observable improvement in the reconstruction fidelity, with an increase in the number of the sub-bands and a simultaneous decrease in the number of spectral channels of each sub-band.

Coded aperture compressive imaging array applied for surveillance systems

This paper proposes an application of compressive imaging systems to the problem of wide-area video surveillance systems. A parallel coded aperture compressive imaging system and a corresponding motion target detection algorithm in video using compressive image data are developed. Coded masks with random Gaussian, Toeplitz and random binary are utilized to simulate the compressive image respectively. For compressive images, a mixture of the Gaussian distribution is applied to the compressed image field to model the background. A simple threshold test in compressive sampling image is used to declare motion objects. Foreground image retrieval from underdetermined measurement using the total variance optimization algorithm is explored. The signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） is employed to evaluate the image quality recovered from the compressive sampling signals, and receiver operation characteristic （ROC） curves are used to quantify the performance of the motion detection algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the low dimensional compressed imaging representation is sufficient to determine spatial motion targets. Compared with the random Gaussian and Toeplitz mask, motion detection algorithms using the random binary phase mask can yield better detection results. However using the random Gaussian and Toeplitz phase mask can achieve high resolution reconstructed images.

Image reconstruction for the coded aperture system in nuclear safety and security using a Monte Carlo-based system matrix

Purpose Accurate localization of radioactive materials is critical to nuclear safety and nuclear security.A coded aperture imaging system provides a visualization solution.However,the correlation method has poor reconstruction performance for sources with low counts and for extended sources.Methods In this study,a Monte Carlo optimization-based MLEM algorithm(MC-MLEM)is proposed.The system matrix was obtained by accurate Monte Carlo simulation,so the physical effects such as mask penetration that affect the imaging process were taken into account in the MLEM algorithm.In the simulation process,the normalization of the system matrix was realized by controlling the source at different position of the source plane to have the same activity and emission angle.Results The experimental results showed that compared with the correlation method,the MC-MLEM algorithm could improve the signal-to-noise ratio and angular resolution and locate the source position quickly and accurately under low count conditions.Furthermore,the MC-MLEM algorithm could reconstruct the shape of the extended source and the expected activity ratio of cold-hot sources with large activity differences.Conclusion The MC-MLEM algorithm improved the imaging results and enhanced the reconstruction performance.

YSO coded aperture camera based on depth of interaction for location correction

Purpose Coded aperture imaging was a widely used imaging method for radiation sources.However,the traditional gamma camera based on two-dimensional projection information for coded aperture imaging ignored the influence of the interaction depth of particles and detectors on the projection information,which reduced the imaging quality of the camera to some extent.Therefore,a method of correcting the coded gamma camera based on the interaction depth of particles and detectors is proposed to improve the location accuracy of detectors.Methods The camera developed in this work uses a 7×7 YSO crystal array coupled with two 7×7 Si-PM arrays.The crystal is evenly divided into 11 parts in the depth direction,with a voxel size of 3×3×3 mm3.The coded mask is a 13×13 array,which is a mosaic of two cycles of 7×7 modified uniformly redundant array mask.The depth resolution of the detector is obtained via the subsurface laser engraving dual-end readout method.After obtaining the three-dimensional position information of the interaction point the projection information obtained by the detector is layered,and the image is reconstructed.According to the spatial position information of the detector and the coded mask,the corresponding field of view of each layer of the detector is calculated,and the reconstructed image of each layer is amplified and superimposed according to the ratio of the field of view to obtain the reconstructed image combined with the depth information.Results and conclusion According to Monte Carlo simulation and radiation source imaging experiment results,this method can effectively improve the positioning ability of the detector.For the experimental scenario mentioned in the paper,the location accuracy can be improved by up to 1.54°.

Compact MPPC-based coded aperture imaging camera for dual-particle detection

Purpose Fast neutrons and gamma-ray imaging detection is an effective way to detect and identify radioactive material in the field of nuclear security.A compact coded aperture imaging(CAI)camera was designed to be sensitive to both gamma and neutron radiation based on plastic scintillators and multi-pixel photon counters(MPPC).Methods MPPCs coupling with the 13×13 pixelated plastic scintillators one-to-one were utilized to reduce the scale of the CAI system while maintaining good positional performance.The symmetric charge division(SCD)circuit was adopted to reduce the 169 signals output from the MPPC array to 26.Each waveform was collected and processed with four Domino Ring Sampler 4(DRS4)chips and two 16-channel analog-to-digital converter(ADC)modules.As the pulse shapes of fast neutrons would be broadened after elastic scattering multiple times in the scintillators,the Anger-Logic method was applied to eliminate multiple elastic scattering events so that good pulse shape discrimination(PSD)performance can be achieved.Results The imaging and detection ability of the camerawas evaluated using the 241Am-Be(5.9×10^(5) n/s)neutron source and 137Cs(370 MBq)gammasource.The camera can be used to detect fast neutrons(0.5–10 MeV)and gammarays(0.2–2.5MeV).Furthermore,it can implement efficient neutron/gamma PSD capabilities in the mixed-field environment.The figure of merit(FOM)of the camera calculated at 400keVee energy cut is 0.93.Conclusion A compact MPPC-based CAI camera was designed to detect and discriminate fast neutrons and gamma rays.Its good PSD performance was well suited to distinguish fast neutrons from gamma rays in a dual-particle environment.The portable design makes it promising for complex monitoring scenarios in nuclear security.

Optimal design of coded aperture used for Z-Pinch driven fusion neutron imaging

Currently,the neutron yield of Z-Pinch is lower than that of laser driven fusion.In the neutron imaging for this facility,the signal to noise ratio(SNR)has a significant influence on the expected spatial resolution of the reconstructed fusion core,especially in the condition of low neutron yield.In this paper,mathematical model is purposed to describe the dependence of aperture parameters on the imaging SNR.The investigation shows that the imaging SNR is closely related to the size of contrast boundary on the point spread function.According to this,a novel non-uniform redundancy penumbra apertures array is designed.In addition,the imaging performances of this novel coded aperture,penumbra aperture and ring aperture are evaluated and compared by Monte Carlo method.The comparison shows that this novel aperture has significant advantage compared to the penumbra aperture which is commonly used for neutron imaging with low yield.The encouraging results can provide reference for the optimal design of the coded aperture used in the neutron imaging for Z-pinch driven fusion with low neutron yield.

Review of engineering techniques in chaotic coded aperture imagers

Coded aperture imaging(CAI)is a technique to image three-dimensional scenes with special controlled abilities.In this review,we survey several recently proposed techniques to control the parameters of CAI by engineering the aperture of the system.The prime architectures of these indirect methods of imaging are reviewed.For each design,we mention the relevant application of the CAI recorders and summarize this overview with a general perspective on this research topic.

Approaches to eliminate near field artifact of MURA

Since the coded aperture technique has been successfully applied on X-ray imaging space telescopes, attentions of its development have also been cast on the application in medical imaging, for it has a very tempting quality to greatly enhance the detection sensitivity without gravely lowering the spacial resolution. But when the coded aperture technique is applied to image a nearby object, the so called ＂near-field artifact＂ comes up, that is, the reconstructed image has a sort of distortion. Among types of coded apertures the MURA （Modified Uniformly Redundant Array） is one of the most discussed. Roberto Arrcosi came up with the solution to remove the artifacts utilizing mask and antimask. In this article we present two ways to eliminate the second order aberration based on his work.