Refine
Year of publication
Institute
- Fachbereich Medizintechnik und Technomathematik (1564)
- Fachbereich Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik (711)
- IfB - Institut für Bioengineering (563)
- Fachbereich Energietechnik (561)
- Fachbereich Chemie und Biotechnologie (537)
- INB - Institut für Nano- und Biotechnologien (533)
- Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik (480)
- Fachbereich Maschinenbau und Mechatronik (262)
- Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften (205)
- Solar-Institut Jülich (161)
- Fachbereich Bauingenieurwesen (150)
- ECSM European Center for Sustainable Mobility (82)
- MASKOR Institut für Mobile Autonome Systeme und Kognitive Robotik (62)
- Nowum-Energy (25)
- Fachbereich Gestaltung (24)
- Institut fuer Angewandte Polymerchemie (23)
- Sonstiges (21)
- Fachbereich Architektur (20)
- Kommission für Forschung und Entwicklung (19)
- Freshman Institute (18)
- ZHQ - Bereich Hochschuldidaktik und Evaluation (8)
- Arbeitsstelle fuer Hochschuldidaktik und Studienberatung (3)
- IMP - Institut für Mikrowellen- und Plasmatechnik (3)
- FH Aachen (2)
- IaAM - Institut für angewandte Automation und Mechatronik (2)
- Kommission für Planung und Finanzen (2)
- Digitalisierung in Studium & Lehre (1)
- Senat (1)
Has Fulltext
- no (4685) (remove)
Language
- English (4685) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (3193)
- Conference Proceeding (1033)
- Part of a Book (191)
- Book (144)
- Doctoral Thesis (30)
- Conference: Meeting Abstract (28)
- Patent (25)
- Other (10)
- Report (9)
- Conference Poster (5)
Keywords
- Gamification (6)
- avalanche (6)
- Earthquake (5)
- Enterprise Architecture (5)
- MINLP (5)
- solar sail (5)
- Additive manufacturing (4)
- Diversity Management (4)
- Energy storage (4)
- Engineering optimization (4)
The readout of gamma detectors is considerably simplified when the event intensity is encoded as a pulse width (Pulse Width Modulation, PWM). Time-to-Digital-Converters (TDC) replace the conventional ADCs and multiple TDCs can be realized easily in one PLD chip (Programmable Logic Device). The output of a PWM stage is only one digital signal per channel which is well suited for transport so that further processing can be performed apart from the detector. This is particularly interesting for large systems with high channel density (e.g. high resolution scanners). In this work we present a circuit with a linear transfer function that requires a minimum of components by performing the PWM already in the preamp stage. This allows a very compact and also cost-efficient implementation of the front-end electronics.
The monolithic scintillator block approach for gamma detection in the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) avoids estimating Depth of Interaction (DOI), reduces dead zones in detector and diminishes costs of detector production. Neural Networks (NN) are very efficient to determine the entrance point of a gamma incident on a scintillator block. This paper presents results on the robustness of the spatial resolution as a function of the random fraction in the data, temperature and HV fluctuations. This is important when implementing the method in a real scanner. Measurements were done with two Hamamatsu S8550 APD arrays, glued on a 20 Ã 20 Ã 10 mm3 monolithic LSO crystal block.
Unravelling the factors determining the allocation of carbon to various plant organs is one of the great challenges of modern plant biology. Studying allocation under close to natural conditions requires non-invasive methods, which are now becoming available for measuring plants on a par with those developed for humans. By combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), we investigated three contrasting root/shoot systems growing in sand or soil, with respect to their structures, transport routes and the translocation dynamics of recently fixed photoassimilates labelled with the short-lived radioactive carbon isotope 11C. Storage organs of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) and radish plants (Raphanus sativus) were assessed using MRI, providing images of the internal structures of the organs with high spatial resolution, and while species-specific transport sectoralities, properties of assimilate allocation and unloading characteristics were measured using PET. Growth and carbon allocation within complex root systems were monitored in maize plants (Zea mays), and the results may be used to identify factors affecting root growth in natural substrates or in competition with roots of other plants. MRI–PET co-registration opens the door for non-invasive analysis of plant structures and transport processes that may change in response to genomic, developmental or environmental challenges. It is our aim to make the methods applicable for quantitative analyses of plant traits in phenotyping as well as in understanding the dynamics of key processes that are essential to plant performance.
Two of the main environmental problems of today’s society are the continuously increasing production of organic wastes as well as the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the related green house effect. A way to solve these problems is the production of biogas. Biogas is a combustible gas consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases and trace elements. Production of biogas through anaerobic digestion of animal manure and slurries as well as of a wide range of digestible organic wastes and agricultural residues, converts these substrates into electricity and heat and offers a natural fertiliser for agriculture. The microbiological process of decomposition of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen takes place in reactors, called digesters. Biogas can be used as a fuel in a gas turbine or burner and can be used in a hybrid solar tower system offering a solution for waste treatment of agricultural and animal residues. A solar tower system consists of a heliostat field, which concentrates direct solar irradiation on an open volumetric central receiver. The receiver heats up ambient air to temperatures of around 700°C. The hot air’s heat energy is transferred to a steam Rankine cycle in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The steam drives a steam turbine, which in turn drives a generator for producing electricity. In order to increase the operational hours of a solar tower power plant, a heat storage system and/ or hybridization may be considered. The advantage of solar-fossil hybrid power plants, compared to solar-only systems, lies in low additional investment costs due to an adaptable solar share and reduced technical and economical risks. On sunny days the hybrid system operates in a solar-only mode with the central receiver and on cloudy days and at night with the gas turbine only. As an alternative to methane gas, environmentally neutral biogas can be used for operating the gas turbine. Hence, the hybrid system is operated to 100% from renewable energy sources
Tristan und Isolde, Samson und Dalila, Capriccio : 3D illustration for posters of Cologne Opera
(2009)
Beyond ClearPET: Next Aims
(2008)
The CRYSTAL CLEAR collaboration, in short CCC, is a consortium of 12 academic institutions, mainly from Europe, joining efforts in the area of developing instrumentation for nuclear medicine and medical imaging. In the framework of the CCC a high performance small animal PET system, called ClearPET, was developed by using new technologies in electronics and crystals in a phoswich arrangement combining two types of lutetium- based scintillator materials: LSO:Ce and LuYAP:Ce. Our next aim will be the development of hybrid image systems. Hybrid MR-PET imaging has many unique advantages for brain research. This has sparked a new research line within CCC for the development of novel MR-PET compatible technologies. MRI is not as sensitive as PET but PET has poorer spatial resolution than MRI. Two major advantages of PET are sensitivity and its ability to acquire metabolic information. To assess these innovations, the development of a 9.4T hybrid animal MR-PET scanner is proposed based on an existing 9.4T MR scanner that will be adapted to enable simultaneous acquisition of MR and PET data using cutting- edge technology for both MR and PET.
Plant growth and transport processes are highly dynamic. They are characterized by plant-internal control processes and by strong interactions with the spatially and temporally varying environment. Analysis of structure- function relations of growth and transport in plants will strongly benefit from the development of non-invasive techniques. PlanTIS (Plant Tomographic Imaging System) is designed for non-destructive 3D-imaging of positron emitting radiotracers. It will permit functional analysis of the dynamics of carbon distribution in plants including bulky organs. It will be applicable for screening transport properties of plants to evaluate e.g. temperature adaptation of genetically modified plants. PlanTIS is a PET scanner dedicated to monitor the dynamics of the 11C distribution within a plant while or after assimilation of 11CO2. Front end electronics and data acquisition architecture of the scanner are based on the ClearPETTM system [1]. Four detector modules form one of two opposing detector blocks. Optionally, a hardware coincidence detection between the blocks can be applied. In general the scan duration is rather long (~ 1 hour) compared to the decay time of 11C (20 min). As a result the count rates can vary over a wide range and accurate dead time correction is necessary.
Development of an optimized LSO/LuYAP phoswich detector head for the Lausanne ClearPET demonstrator
(2006)
This paper describes the LSO/LuYAP phoswich detector head developed for the ClearPET small animal PET scanner demonstrator that is under construction in Lausanne within the Crystal Clear Collaboration. The detector head consists of a dual layer of 8×8 LSO and LuYAP crystal arrays coupled to a multi-anode photomultiplier tube (Hamamatsu R7600-M64). Equalistion of the LSO/LuYAP light collection is obtained through partial attenuation of the LSO scintillation light using a thin aluminum deposit of 20-35 nm on LSO and appropriate temperature regulation of the phoswich head between 30°C to 60°C. At 511keV, typical FWHM energy resolutions of the pixels of a phoswich head amounts to (28±2)% for LSO and (25±2)% for LuYAP. The LSO versus LuYAP crystal identification efficiency is better than 98%. Six detector modules have been mounted on a rotating gantry. Axial and tangential spatial resolutions were measured up to 4 cm from the scanner axis and compared to Monte Carlo simulations using GATE. FWHM spatial resolution ranges from 1.3 mm on axis to 2.6 mm at 4 cm from the axis.
The ClearPET™ Neuro is the first full ring scanner within the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC). It consists of 80 detector modules allocated to 20 cassettes. LSO and LuYAP:Ce crystals in phoswich configuration in combination with position sensitive photomultiplier tubes are used to achieve high sensitivity and realize the acquisition of the depth of interaction (DOI) information. The complete system has been tested concerning the mechanical and electronical stability and interplay. Moreover, suitable corrections have been implemented into the reconstruction procedure to ensure high image quality. We present first results which show the successful operation of the ClearPET™ Neuro for artefact free and high resolution small animal imaging. Based on these results during the past few months the ClearPET™ Neuro System has been modified in order to optimize the performance.
The small animal PET scanners developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration (ClearPETtrade) detect coincidences by analyzing timemarks which are attached to each event. The scanners are able to save complete single list mode data which allows analysis and modification of the timemarks after data acquisition. The timemarks are obtained from the digitally sampled detector pulses by calculating the baseline crossing of the rising edge of the pulse which is approximated as a straight line. But the limited sampling frequency causes a systematic error in the determination of the timemark. This error depends on the phase of the sampling clock at the time of the event. A statistical method that corrects these errors will be presented
The Crystal Clear Collaboration has developed a modular system for a small animal PET scanner (ClearPET). The modularity allows the assembly of scanners of different sizes and characteristics in order to satisfy the specific needs of the individual member institutions. The system performs depth of interaction detection by using a phoswich arrangement combining LSO and LuYAP scintillators which are coupled to Multichannel Photomultipliers (PMTs). For each PMT a free running 40 MHz ADC digitizes the signal and the complete scintillation pulse is sampled by an FPGA and sent with 20 MB/s to a PC for preprocessing. The pulse provides information about the gamma energy and the scintillator material which identifies the interaction layer. Furthermore, the exact pulse starting time is obtained from the sampled data. This is important as no hardware coincidence detection is implemented. All single events are recorded and coincidences are identified by software. The system in Jülich (ClearPET Neuro) is equipped with 10240 crystals on 80 PMTs. The paper will present an overview of the data acquisition system.
This study has been performed to design the combination of the new ClearPET (ClearPET is a trademark of the Crystal Clear Collaboration), a small animal positron emission tomography (PET) system, with a micro-computed tomography (microCT) scanner. The properties of different microCT systems have been determined by simulations based on GEANT4. We will demonstrate the influence of the detector material and the X-ray spectrum on the obtained contrast. Four different detector materials (selenium, cadmium zinc telluride, cesium iodide and gadolinium oxysulfide) and two X-ray spectra (a molybdenum and a tungsten source) have been considered. The spectra have also been modified by aluminum filters of varying thickness. The contrast between different tissue types (water, air, brain, bone and fat) has been simulated by using a suitable phantom. The results indicate the possibility to improve the image contrast in microCT by an optimized combination of the X-ray source and detector material.
The ClearPET™ project: Development of a 2nd generation high-performance small animal PET scanner
(2005)
Second generation high-performance PET scanners, called ClearPET™1, have been developed by working groups of the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC). High sensitivity and high spatial resolution for the ClearPET camera is achieved by using a phoswich arrangement combining two different types of lutetium-based scintillator materials: LSO from CTI and LuYAP:Ce from the CCC (ISTC project). In a first ClearPET prototype, phoswich arrangements of 8×8 crystals of 2×2×10 mm3 are coupled to multi-channel photomultiplier tubes (Hamamatsu R7600). A unit of four PMTs arranged in-line represents one of 20 sectors of the ring design. The opening diameter of the ring is 120 mm, the axial detector length is 110 mm.The PMT pulses are digitized by free-running ADCs and digital data processing determines the gamma energy, the phoswich layer and even the exact pulse starting time, which is subsequently used for coincidence detection. The gantry allows rotation of the detector modules around the field of view.
Preliminary data shows a correct identification of the crystal layer about (98±1)%. Typically the energy resolution is (23.3±0.5)% for the luyap layer and (15.4±0.4)% for the lso layer. early studies showed the timing resolution of 2 ns FWHM and 4.8 ns FWTM. the intrinsic spatial resolution ranges from 1.37 mm to 1.61 mm full-width of half-maximum (FWHM) with a mean of 1.48 mm FWHM. further improvements in image and energy resolution are expected when the system geometry is fully modeled.
The ClearPET® scanners developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration use multichannel PMTs as photodetectors with scintillator pixels coupled individually to each channel. In order to localize an event each channel anode is connected to a comparator that triggers when the anode signal exceeds a common predefined threshold. Two major difficulties here are crosstalk of light and the gain nonuniformity of the PMT channels. Crosstalk can generate false triggering in channels adjacent to the actual event. On the one hand this can be suppressed by sufficiently increasing the threshold, but on the other hand a threshold too high can already prevent valid events on the lower gain channels from being detected. Finally, both effects restrict the dynamic range of pulse heights that can be processed. The requirements to the dynamic range are not low as the ClearPET® scanners detect the depth of interaction by phoswich pixels consisting of LSO and Lu0.7Y0.3AP, two scintillators with different light yields. We will present a model to estimate the achievable dynamic range and show solutions to increase it.
The ClearPET project
(2004)
The Crystal Clear Collaboration has designed and is building a high-resolution small animal PET scanner. The design is based on the use of the Hamamatsu R7600-M64 multi-anode photomultiplier tube and a LSO/LuYAP phoswich matrix with one to one coupling between the crystals and the photo-detector. The complete system will have 80 PM tubes in four rings with an inner diameter of 137 mm and an axial field of view of 110 mm. The PM pulses are digitized by free-running ADCs and digital data processing determines the gamma energy, the phoswich layer and even the pulse arrival time. Single gamma interactions are recorded and coincidences are found by software. The gantry allows rotation of the detector modules around the field of view. Simulations, and measurements a 2×4 module test set-up predict a spatial resolution of 1.5 mm in the centre of the field of view and a sensitivity of 5.9% for a point source in the centre of the field of view.
The ClearPET™ project is proposed by working groups of the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC) to develop a 2nd generation high performance small animal positron emission tomograph (PET). High sensitivity and high spatial resolution is foreseen for the ClearPET™ camera by using a phoswich arrangement combining mixed lutetium yttrium aluminum perovskite (LuYAP:Ce) and lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) scintillating crystals. Design optimizations for the first photomultiplier tube (PMT) based ClearPET camera are done with a Monte-Carlo simulation package implemented on GEANT3 (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland). A dual-head prototype has been built to test the frontend electronics and was used to validate the implementation of the GEANT3 simulation tool. Multiple simulations were performed following the experimental protocols to measure the intrinsic resolution and the sensitivity profile in axial and radial direction. Including a mean energy resolution of about 27.0% the simulated intrinsic resolution is about (1.41±0.11)mm compared to the measured of (1.48±0.06)mm. The simulated sensitivity profiles show a mean square deviation of 12.6% in axial direction and 3.6% in radial direction. Satisfactorily these results are representative for all designs and confirm the scanner geometry.
MultiChannel Photomultipliers (PM), like the R7600-00-M64 or R5900-00-M64 from Hamamatsu, are often chosen as photodetectors in high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET). A major problem of this PM is the nonuniform channel gain. In order to solve this problem, light attenuating masks were created. The aim of the masks is a homogenization of the output of all 64 channels using different hole sizes at the channel positions. The hole area, which is individually defined for the different channels, is inversely proportional to the channel gain. The measurements by inserting light attenuating masks improved a homogenization to a ratio of 1:1.2.
Within the Crystal Clear Collaboration a modular system for a small animal PET scanner (ClearPET™) has been developed. The modularity allows the assembly of scanners of different sizes and characteristics in order to fit the specific needs of the individual member institutions. Now a first demonstrator is being completed in Julich. The system performs depth of interaction detection by using a phoswich arrangement combining LSO and LuYAP scintillators which are coupled to multi-channel photomultipliers (PMTs). A free-running ADC digitizes the signal from the PMT and the complete scintillation pulses are sampled by an FPGA and sent with 20 MB/S to a PC for preprocessing. The pulse provides information about the gamma energy and the scintillator material which identifies the interaction layer. Furthermore, the exact pulse starting time is obtained from the sampled data. This is important as no hardware coincidence detection is implemented. All single events are recorded and coincidences are identified by software. An advantage of that is that the coincidence window and the dimensions of the field of view can be adjusted easily. The ClearPET™ demonstrator is equipped with 10240 crystals on 80 PMTs. This paper presents an overview of the data acquisition system.
A 2nd generation high performance small animal PET scanner, called ClearPET™, has been designed and a first prototype is built by working groups of the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC). In order to achieve high sensitivity and maintain good uniform spatial resolution over the field of view in high resolution PET systems, it is necessary to extract the depth of interaction (DOI) information and correct for spatial degradation. The design of the first ClearPET™ Demonstrator based on the use of the multi-anode photomultiplier tube (Hamamatsu R7600-M64) and a LSO/LuYAP phoswich matrix. The two crystal layers of 8*8 crystals (2*2*10 mm3) are stacked on each other and mounted without light guide as one to one on the PMT. A unit of four PMTs arranged in-line represents one of 20 sectors of the ring design. The opening diameter of the crystal ring is 137 mm, the axial detector length is 110 mm. The PMT pulses are digitized by free-running ADCs and digital data processing determines the gamma energy, the phoswich layer and even the pulse arrival time. Single gamma interactions are recorded and coincidences are found by software. The gantry allows rotation of the detector modules around the field of view. The measurements have been done using the first LSO/LuYAP detector cassettes.