Patent ID: 7297958

Claim:
A positron emission tomography apparatus comprising: a bed on which a subject is to be laid; an image pickup device that is provided with a plurality of semiconductor radiation detectors for detecting γ rays from said subject and a support member for supporting said semiconductor radiation detectors, said semiconductor radiation detectors being arranged in a plurality of layers and in a direction away from said bed on which said subject is to be placed, wherein γ rays passing through one of said semiconductor radiation detectors is detected by another of said semiconductor radiation detectors arranged in said direction away from said bed; a signal processor connected to said plurality of semiconductor radiation detectors, for coincidence processing γ rays detection signals detected by said semiconductor radiation detectors; wherein said signal processor comprises γ-ray signal processors, wherein each of said γ-ray signal processors connects to separate semiconductor radiation detectors which are arranged in each of said layers; and a tomogram generator for creating tomogram data of said subject on the basis of positional information of said semiconductor radiation detectors representing an arrived position of a pair of coincidence processed γ rays in a direction away from said bed, said positional information being output information of said signal processor.