Simulation for CaLIPSO PET scanner

The aim of the CaLIPSO project (French acronym for Liquid Ionization Calorimeter, Scintillation Position Organometallic) is to develop the proof of concept for a new gamma detector for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner for small animals and human brain imaging. The objective is to achieve a spatial resolution about 1 mm
³
without losing efficiency with respect to current PET systems. Moreover, excellent time resolution, important for coincidence selection, is also targeted. Such performances are possible thanks to the concept of double detection of the signal created by photoelectron from the photon conversion in trimethyl bismuth, a innovative liquid filling a PET cell. The ongoing work is focused on prototypes developments for light and ionization detection systems. In this conference record we discuss the results of the simulation for the optical prototype and its comparison to the data obtained during the detector tests. We also present the performances of the PET scanner simulated with GATE and a comparison with a high resolution PET system.