title: A SPECT system simulator built on the SolidWorksTM3D-Design package.
abstract: We have developed a GPU-accelerated SPECT system simulator that integrates into instrument-design workflow [1]. This simulator includes a gamma-ray tracing module that can rapidly propagate gamma-ray photons through arbitrary apertures modeled by SolidWorksTM-created stereolithography (.STL) representations with a full complement of physics cross sections [2, 3]. This software also contains a scintillation detector simulation module that can model a scintillation detector with arbitrary scintillation crystal shape and light-sensor arrangement. The gamma-ray tracing module enables us to efficiently model aperture and detector crystals in SolidWorksTMand save them as STL file format, then load the STL-format model into this module to generate list-mode results of interacted gamma-ray photon information (interaction positions and energies) inside the detector crystals. The Monte-Carlo scintillation detector simulation module enables us to simulate how scintillation photons get reflected, refracted and absorbed inside a scintillation detector, which contributes to more accurate simulation of a SPECT system.
authors.affiliation: Center for Gamma-Ray Imaging and College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Gamma-Ray Imaging and College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Lars R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Furenlid
keywords: GPU; Monte-Carlo; SPECT; STL; gamma-ray tracing; list-mode; scintillation detector