Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) of Villigen, Switzerland, has selected Zecotek's proprietary micro-pixel avalanche photo diodes (MAPD) for trials in its PET medical imaging program.

The PSI’s PET program is focused on advancing improvements in sensitivity, spatial resolution and image quality in PET scanners, based on the understanding that advances in PET are driven largely by progress in instrumentation, in particular the performance of scintillation materials, photo-detectors and read-out electronics, according to the Vancouver, B.C.-based Zecotek.

A.F. Zerrouk, MD, chairman, president, and CEO of Zecotek, said that the MAPD photo detector and the LFS scintillation material form a new class of detector array used in medical imaging because the MAPDs are not affected by magnetic fields, offering an integrated PET-MRI scanning device.