CDTE DETECTORS IN MEDICINE - A REVIEW OF CURRENT APPLICATIONS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor sensors have been evaluated for medical applications for 15 years owing to their high stopping power, convenient energy resolution and operating conditions at room temperature. Most of the applications herein reviewed concern medical imaging procedures, i.e., nuclear medicine, including positron emission tomography and radiology with computerized tomography (XCT). Despite their attractive physical characteristics, their preliminary commercial development has been slowed down in the early 80s because of technical problems, particularly when large arrays were considered, and because of the competition with the more available and less expensive scintillators or xenon chambers which are still mounted in most modern medical imaging systems. Nowadays the characteristics of new materials have allowed the development of restricted but more specific domains of CdTe medical applications i.e. miniaturized nuclear probes dedicated to per-operative tumor detection or ambulatory monitoring of physiological (renal, cardiac) functions and bone absorptiometry using either planar or miniature tomographic systems. Supported by these features and encouraged by the growing competition between ionising and non-ionizing imaging modalities (US, MRI), research work is presently conducted with a view to using CdTe detectors in XCT.