A proton Computed Tomography based medical imaging system

This paper reports on the activity of the INFN PRIMA/RDH collaboration in the development of proton Computed Tomography (pCT) systems based on single proton tracking and residual energy measurement. The systems are made of a silicon microstrip tracker and a YAG:Ce crystal calorimeter to measure single protons trajectory and residual energy, respectively. A first prototype of pCT scanner, with an active area of about 5 × 5 cm² and a data rate capability of 10 kHz, has been constructed and characterized with 62 MeV protons at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania (Italy) and with 180 MeV protons at The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) in Uppsala (Sweden). Results of these measurements, including tomographic reconstructions of test phantoms, will be shown and discussed. An upgraded system with an extended field of view (up to ∼ 5 × 20 cm²) and an increased event rate capability up to one MHz, presently under development, will be also described