Ural Federal University Scientists Collaborate with Rosatom on Groundbreaking Gamma Detector
Specialists of the Institute of Physics and Technology of the Ural Federal University will help Rosatom State Corporation to develop a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanner. The development is intended to replace foreign high-tech medical equipment. The project will be carried out by specialists of the Giredmet Institute (part of the Chemical Technology Cluster of the Scientific Department of Rosatom State Corporation) within the framework of the reverse engineering grant program of the Agency for Technological Development.
To date, Giredmet employees have completed the development of the preliminary design of the domestic gamma detector and made a mock-up of the main functional units of the gamma detector to verify the main characteristics of the product. By the end of 2025, Giredmet will present design documentation based on the results of manufacturing and preliminary testing of the prototype SPECT gamma detector.
Among the most significant developments was the pilot technology for growing extra-large crystals of cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (Lu2SiO5:Ce) by recycling production waste, which minimized the unit cost of individual pixels obtained after crystal cutting for positron emission tomography detectors. Scintillation properties of Lu2SiO5:Ce crystals correspond to the best world samples. The Institute’s specialists have launched other projects to develop detector materials for medical imaging, which, as Ivanovskikh explains, is relevant due to the abolition of imports of detector materials and related equipment to our country. Such materials are used not only in medical equipment, but also in nuclear power engineering, nuclear physics research, security systems, radioecological monitoring, and other areas. The co-executors of this project are specialists from the Institute of Physics and Technology of UrFU, who conduct research with financial support from the Priority 2030 program.
“The implemented project requires the team to consolidate the accumulated long-term experience in the field of creating precision spectrometric devices. Modern element base, circuit solutions, and digital signal processing methods allow to create multichannel spectrometric systems (there are several dozens in the gamma chamber of SPECT detector) without disadvantages typical for the most widespread SPECT scanners on the market today and operated in Russia. These are such limitations as: long warm-up of the device after switching it on, strict temperature control in the room where the device is placed due to the lack of spectrometer stabilization in the design, frequent calibration during the working shift”, adds Oleg Ignatev, Scientific Director of the Research Laboratory of lectronics of X-Ray Devices at UrFU (partner of the SPECT gamma detector project).
The gamma camera, and thus the prototype SPECT detector that is being created, will not be the product of the usual reverse engineering, but will be a remarkable step in the development of SPECT hardware, experts say.
The initiator, industrial partner and future consumer of the SPECT gamma detectors under development is Rusatom RDS (Rosatom State Corporation), which oversees and develops many of the latest developments in nuclear medicine.
Anatoly Myalitsin, Director of the Specialized Medical Equipment Division of Rusatom RDS, noted that Rusatom RDS consistently promotes projects to develop and introduce domestic equipment for high-tech medical care in the country, including nuclear medicine.