On March 6, 1999, a multislice detector was installed on Aquilion prototype, and clinical experiments are now being conducted.
The multislice detector of Aquilion (referred to as "V-detector"*) is a two-dimensional solid-state detector array incorporating a total of 34 rows, 30,464 detector elements. The four central rows are of 0.5-mm detector elements with 15 rows of 1-mm detector elements on either side (figure). This is the most advanced matrix detector system in terms of element number, density, spatial resolutions and detector width (see table). By selecting different combinations of detector rows, scanning can be performed with various slice thicknesses (mm): 0.5 x 4, 1 x4, 2 x 4, 3 x 4, 4 x4, 5 x4, 8 x4 and 10x2.
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From the industrial viewpoint, the increase in number of channel is the function of cost and technological difficulty. It becomes more difficult and more expensive to develop as the number of channel increases. This is a general rule for the production of any matrix-structured products such as liquid crystal display, CCD, computer memories and so on. Therefore, the larger number is an indication of higher technology.
From this viewpoint, employment of a non-uniform type detector seems to be an "efficient" way of choice since it is less expensive and easier to develop. At the early stages of development, we also had investigated a non-uniform type detector. However, we abandoned this idea because of limited future possibilities. Matrix type of detector systems are able to adapt to more enhanced multislice CT systems such as 8 or 12 slice with some modification of current detector system. The type and specification of the detector which was employed for a multislice CT system is telling "how far they are looking," or "how far they want to reach." Our final goal is to have a 1024x1024 matrix detector which may realize single rotation volumetric scanning.
-go to half-millimeter
*"V" stands for "volume."