PET Project

Goal

The MEDUSA project focuses on R&D for high energy physics instrumentation with two important and dependant goals. One is to contribute to the research for future particle detectors and develop new improved detectors for the LHC upgrade as well as the planned international linear collider. The other is to provide new technologies for medical imaging devices such as PET. With this, we hope to contribute to bridging the gap between the particle physics research and the medical technology to fully take advantage of the latest development.

Two complementary detector technologies are highly interesting for medical applications. First, the compact calorimeter is a new technology for detection of photons and hadrons, based on a new type of silicon photomultipliers. These detectors form the base of modern medical imaging technology where precise localisation of radioactive tracers in the body. Aquisition speed and sensitivity are two central challenges for high energy physics. In addition, these detectors can be used to develop Time-of-Flight measurements.

The 3D semiconductor devices are based on another new technology, aiming to provide particle and radiation detection by the use of 3 dimensional silicon pixels. The advantage of this method is that these sensors have improved radiation hardness as well as a better to-the-edge detection. A substancial challenge is to provide thin devices and 3D integration, one of the requirement for linear accelerators. Semiconductor detectors are widely used in imaging spectroscopy and particle tracking of ionising radiation, both for charged particles and photons.

This project is set up with the collaboration of the new PET senter at Haukeland University Hospital and we will closely collaborate with their researchers. Other research partners are the University of Oslo as well as the CLIC, ALICE and the ATLAS collaboration at CERN and the ILC project.

Characterisation Cell

Photomultipliers