Development of coded-aperture imaging with a compact gamma camera

In the 1990's, CEA has developed one of the most compact operational gamma cameras in the world, CARTOGAM, capable of mapping the surrounding radioactivity and representing it superimposed onto a visible-light image. Since, the camera has been successfully industrialized and commercialized. In the same time, the Kurchatov Institute has developed a coded-aperture gamma camera. The two teams have joined their efforts to develop a compact coded-aperture gamma camera. This paper presents the first results obtained with a coded mask adapted to the existing CARTOGAM camera. According to preliminary simulations compact coded-aperture gamma camera could enable Cs-137 or Co-60 source imaging. Innovative masks have been achieved that lead to the following results: a significant increase in the sensitivity (up to 10 times), an acceptable angular resolution (2/spl deg/ to 3/spl deg/) and a large field of view (about 30/spl deg/). The tungsten-alloy masks were produced and the adaptation of the camera was carried out. The laboratory results of Cs-137 and Co-60 imaging, including shadowgrams and reconstructed images for point sources, are presented.