Patent ID: 8063379

Claim:
A Tomographic Radiation Imaging System, without collimators, for detecting the positions of sources of gamma or X-rays hereinafter referred to as electromagnetic radiation, comprising: a) track detectors for registering tracks of electrons created by the interaction of the electromagnetic radiation with said track detectors wherein said track detectors comprise: a1) structures composed of two or three interlaced two dimensional scintillation fiber arrays, wherein each array is orthogonal to the other two arrays wherein a11) the fiber cross section is one of circular and rectangular and less than (100μ) 2 , and a12) said scintillation fibers are non-touching and separated by a material with a refractive index of less than n=1.10, and b) position sensitive detectors of electromagnetic radiation, and c) photo-detector digital Cameras hereinafter referred to as Cameras, wherein c1) each photo-detector element of a Camera is optically coupled to one of the scintillation fibers on a one-to-one basis, and wherein c2) the end of each of the scintillation fibers not connected to a photo-detector is coated with a light reflecting coating, and d) Camera readout electronics for identifying the photo-detector pixels that, within a predetermined time window, generate an electric signal following a scintillation event, and e) time coincidence circuits for correlating separate tracks in the track detector and signals detected by the position sensitive detectors, and f) an electronics interface containing position electronics for registering in real time the absolute position and direction of the Radiation Imaging System, the coincidence circuits, the readout electronics of the Photodetector cameras, temporary memory and communication means for relaying the outputs of the Cameras to an external computer for building a Tomographic image of the Radiation sources.