Light detection for medical imaging

A digital light detection technology from Philips Electronics is promising to remove the use of analogue signals from medical imaging entirely.

Philips’ silicon photomultiplier technology digitally detects light and processes the signal all on one chip.

The developers believe such a chip could improve the performance of positron emission tomography (PET), a nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a 3D image of functional processes in the body.

Carsten Degenhardt, research and development manager of Philips Digital Photon Counting, said most light detection technology outputs information through analogue signals, which are affected by noise interference.

Degenhardt said that the Philips chip would be unaffected by such interference and therefore it could improve sensitivity and imaging capabilities.

‘So a physician could see a tumour earlier and adjust the treatment to treat a patient earlier,’ he said,  adding that scan time could also be reduced because detection and processing of light is done on one chip. This would mean patients would be exposed to less radiation.