A 1200 ELEMENT DETECTOR SYSTEM FOR SYNCHROTRON-BASED CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY

A 1200 channel Si(Li) detector system has been developed for transveno us coronary angiography experiments using synchrotron radiation. It is part of the synchrotron medical imaging facility at the National Sync hrotron Light Source. The detector is made from a single crystal of li thium-drifted silicon with an active area 150 mm long x 11 mm high x 5 mm thick. The elements are arranged in two parallel rows of 600 eleme nts with a center-to-center spacing of 0.25 mm. All 1200 elements are read out simultaneously every 4 ms. An Intel 80486 based computer with a high speed digital signal processing interface is used to control t he beamline hardware and to acquire a series of images. The signal-to- noise, linearity and resolution of the system have been measured. Huma n images have been taken with this system.