A YAP camera 40 x 40 mm2 with fast readout electronics

Previous papers have already demonstrated the suitability, for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) tracers biodistribution studies on small animals, of a miniature gamma camera composed by a YAP:Ce scintillating array 4 x 4 x 1 cm(3) coupled to a 3-in Hamamatsu crossed-wire anode position sensitive photomultiplier (PSPMT). Some modifications have been applied to the imaging system readout in order to adapt its utilization for specific purposes (i,e., SPECT radiopharmaceutical testing) and to reduce construction costs so that a larger scale production may be feasible. In particular, the system introduced here is based on a resistive chain readout and an integrated acquisition electronics. The intrinsic performance of this new version has been analyzed and compared to the previous system, which had a single-wire readout, Results showed that the basic characteristics of the imaging system remain substantially unchanged in this simplified version, while a faster count rate is achieved. A test on a biological sample performed with the YAP camera both in single-mire and in resistive chain readout modality is also presented, which shows the system high performance in comparison to the Anger camera.