A High Sensitivity Imaging Scintimammography System (ScintiMAM)

The focus of this project is the early and accurate detection of breast cancer by reducing errors in breast diagnostic imaging. The technique uses the fact that malignant breast tumors uptake certain radionuclides that benign masses do not. The malignant tumor will be imaged by a ScintiMAM instrument that will have 3-dimensional imaging capabilities. It will also be collimatorless, which will increase its efficiency over the standard type of gamma-camera. It is a Compton camera, measuring the Compton scattering angle in the detector. It will also have high energy resolution, enabling it to ignore events that occurred from scatter within the breast. A key component of the system is a mixed-signal Application Specific Integrated Circuit RENA chip for read-out of the many detector channels. Much of the first year was spent on the development and testing of the RENA chip.