Development of a portable gamma imager based on SiPM and coded aperture technology

This paper describes the instrumentation of an integrated remote radiation imager used in environmental measurement. The system consists of gamma ray detector, coded aperture mask, video camera, FPGA based digital electronics, embedded control system and screen. The detector is based on a 5×5 SiPM array coupled with 11×11 YSO scintillator array with the pitch size of 1.8mm. The modified uniformly redundant array coded aperture mask was used to enable the system with greater sensitivity. The device can take images of the radiation distribution of the vision field, which is fused with optical image and then displayed on LED screen. Preliminary experiment results showed that the imaging system was full functional. The imager weighs only 2.8kg and is powered by lithium battery, being the most portable one among similar-type instruments reported up to now.