Design Analysis and Performance Evaluation of a Two Dimensional Camera for Accelerated Positron Emitter Beam Injection by Computer Simulation

The characteristics and design of a high-accuracy and high-sensitivity 2-dimensional camera for the measurement of the end-point of the trajectory of accelerated heavy ion beams of positron emitter isotopes are described. Computer simulation methods have been used in order to insure that the design would meet the demanding criteria of ability to obtain the location of the centroid of a point source in the X-Y plane with errors smaller than 1 mm, with an activity of 100 nanoCi, in a counting time of 5 sec or less. A computer program which can be developed into a 'general purpose' analysis tool for a large number of positron emitter camera configurations is described in its essential parts. The validation of basic simulation results with simple measurements is reported, and the use of the program to generate simulated images which include important second order effects due to detector material, geometry, septa, etc. is demonstrated. Comparison between simulated images and initial results with the completed instrument shows that the desired specifications have been met.