Patents by Inventor Naoko Inadama
Naoko Inadama has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 9029789Abstract: A light receiver for detecting incident time is installed on the side of a radiation source of a scintillator (including a Cherenkov radiation emitter), and information (energy, incident time, an incident position, etc.) on radiation made incident into the scintillator is obtained by the output of the light receiver. It is, thereby, possible to identify an incident position and others of radiation into the scintillator at high accuracy.Type: GrantFiled: April 9, 2008Date of Patent: May 12, 2015Assignee: National Institute of Radiological SciencesInventors: Kengo Shibuya, Taiga Yamaya, Naoko Inadama, Fumihiko Nishikido, Eiji Yoshida, Hideo Murayama
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Patent number: 8933410Abstract: A three-dimensional position-sensitive radiation detector is provided which has a three-dimensional array of photodetectors disposed on the surface of a scintillator block and which is capable of three-dimensionally identifying the position of light emission at which radiation has been detected within the detector. The three-dimensional position-sensitive radiation detector includes: a scintillator block including a central portion which restricts the direction of diffusion of light so as to direct the light in three axial directions and which has an optically discontinuous region, and an outer portion which is disposed on the outside of the central portion and which does not restrict the direction of diffusion of light; and photodetectors disposed on at least two outer circumferential surfaces of the scintillator block.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 2010Date of Patent: January 13, 2015Assignees: National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.Inventors: Naoko Inadama, Hideo Murayama, Taiga Yamaya, Mitsuo Watanabe, Takahiro Moriya, Kenshi Fukumitsu, Tomohide Omura
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Patent number: 8436312Abstract: This aims to provide a DOI type radiation detector in which scintillation crystals arranged two-dimensionally on a light receiving surface to form rectangular section groups in extending directions of the light receiving surface of a light receiving element are stacked up to make a three-dimensional arrangement and responses of the crystals that have detected radiation are made possible to identify at response positions on the light receiving surface, so that a three-dimensional radiation detection position can be obtained. In the DOI type radiation detector, scintillation crystals are right triangle poles extending upwards from the light receiving surface and the response positions on the light receiving surface are characterized. With this structure, DOI identification of a plurality of layers can be carried out by simply performing an Anger calculation of a light receiving element signal.Type: GrantFiled: October 8, 2008Date of Patent: May 7, 2013Assignee: National Institute of Radiological SciencesInventors: Naoko Inadama, Hideo Murayama, Kengo Shibuya, Fumihiko Nishikido, Taiga Yamaya, Eiji Yoshida
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Publication number: 20130056638Abstract: A three-dimensional position-sensitive radiation detector is provided which has a three-dimensional array of photodetectors disposed on the surface of a scintillator block and which is capable of three-dimensionally identifying the position of light emission at which radiation has been detected within the detector. The three-dimensional position-sensitive radiation detector includes: a scintillator block including a central portion which restricts the direction of diffusion of light so as to direct the light in three axial directions and which has an optically discontinuous region, and an outer portion which is disposed on the outside of the central portion and which does not restrict the direction of diffusion of light; and photodetectors disposed on at least two outer circumferential surfaces of the scintillator block.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 29, 2010Publication date: March 7, 2013Applicants: HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS K.K., NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCESInventors: Naoko Inadama, Hideo Murayama, Taiga Yamaya, Mitsuo Watanabe, Takahiro Moriya, Kenshi Fukumitsu, Tomohide Omura
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Publication number: 20110121184Abstract: In a DOI radiation detector, scintillation crystals are arranged in three dimensions on a light receiving surface of a light receiving element, and a response of a crystal having detected a radiation ray can be identified on the light receiving surface. Thereby, a position at which the radiation ray is detected is determined in three dimensions. In this DOI radiation detector, regular triangular prism scintillation crystals are used, and response positions of the respective crystals are shifted for each set. This allows crystal identification without loss even with a structure such as a three-layer or six-layer structure hard to achieve by a quadrangular prism scintillation crystal.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 16, 2008Publication date: May 26, 2011Applicants: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, SHIMADZU CORPORATIONInventors: Naoko Inadama, Hideo Murayama, Kengo Shibuya, Fumihiko Nishikido, Tomoaki Tsuda
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Publication number: 20110101229Abstract: This aims to provide a DOI type radiation detector in which scintillation crystals arranged two-dimensionally on a light receiving surface to form rectangular section groups in extending directions of the light receiving surface of a light receiving element are stacked up to make a three-dimensional arrangement and responses of the crystals that have detected radiation are made possible to identify at response positions on the light receiving surface, so that a three-dimensional radiation detection position can be obtained. In the DOI type radiation detector, scintillation crystals are right triangle poles extending upwards from the light receiving surface and the response positions on the light receiving surface are characterized. With this structure, DOI identification of a plurality of layers can be carried out by simply performing an Anger calculation of a light receiving element signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 8, 2008Publication date: May 5, 2011Applicant: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCESInventors: Naoko Inadama, Hideo Murayama, Kengo Shibuya, Fumihiko Nishikido, Taiga Yamaya, Eiji Yoshida
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Publication number: 20110024637Abstract: In an open-type PET scanner, detector rings arranged in a multilayered manner in an axial direction are at least partially opened and the thus opened part of the detector rings is at least partially included in a main focus region. Then, at least some of the detecting elements constituting the detector ring are disposed obliquely in the axial direction so that the main sensitivity direction thereof is turned closer to the main focus region, increasing the resolution in the main focus region. Thereby, it is possible to retain resolution in the body axis direction without using a high-resolution DOI detector and to reduce the price of the open-type PET scanner.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 1, 2008Publication date: February 3, 2011Applicant: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCESInventors: Taiga Yamaya, Hideo Murayama, Naoko Inadama
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Publication number: 20110001049Abstract: A light receiver for detecting incident time is installed on the side of a radiation source of a scintillator (including a Cherenkov radiation emitter), and information (energy, incident time, an incident position, etc.) on radiation made incident into the scintillator is obtained by the output of the light receiver. It is, thereby, possible to identify an incident position and others of radiation into the scintillator at high accuracy.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 9, 2008Publication date: January 6, 2011Applicant: National Institute of Radiological SciencesInventors: Kengo Shibuya, Taiga Yamaya, Naoko Inadama, Fumihiko Nishikido, Eiji Yoshida, Hideo Murayama
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Patent number: 7671339Abstract: A positron emission tomography (PET) scanner is provided which uses information on the time-of-flight difference (TOF) between annihilation radiations for image reconstruction. The scanner has detection time correction information (memory) corresponding to information on coordinates in a radiation detection element (e.g., scintillator crystal), in the depth and lateral directions, at which an interaction has occurred between an annihilation radiation and the crystal. Reference is made to the detection time correction information, thereby providing information on time-of-flight difference with improved accuracy. As such, an improved signal to noise ratio and spatial resolution are provided for image reconstruction using time-of-flight (TOF) difference.Type: GrantFiled: December 25, 2006Date of Patent: March 2, 2010Assignee: National Institute of Radiological SciencesInventors: Kengo Shibuya, Tomoaki Tsuda, Fumihiko Nishikido, Naoko Inadama, Eiji Yoshida, Taiga Yamaya, Hideo Murayama
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Publication number: 20090159804Abstract: A positron emission tomography (PET) scanner is provided which uses information on the time-of-flight difference (TOF) between annihilation radiations for image reconstruction. The scanner has detection time correction information (memory) corresponding to information on coordinates in a radiation detection element (e.g., scintillator crystal), in the depth and lateral directions, at which an interaction has occurred between an annihilation radiation and the crystal. Reference is made to the detection time correction information, thereby providing information on time-of-flight difference with improved accuracy. As such, an improved signal to noise ratio and spatial resolution are provided for image reconstruction using time-of-flight (TOF) difference.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 25, 2006Publication date: June 25, 2009Applicant: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCESInventors: Kengo Shibuya, Tomoaki Tsuda, Fumihiko Nishikido, Naoko Inadama, Eiji Yoshida, Taiga Yamaya, Hideo Murayama
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Patent number: 7091490Abstract: A depth of interaction detector with uniform pulse-height comprises a multi-layer scintillator obtained by coupling at least two scintillator cells on a plane and then stacking the planar coupled scintillator cells, in layers, up to at least two stages and a light-receiving element connected to the bottom face of each scintillator cell of this multi-layer scintillator, wherein the detector is provided with a means for discriminating the position of a scintillator cell, which receives radiant rays and emits light rays and a means for making, uniform, the quantity of the light emitted from each scintillator cell and received by the light-receiving element.Type: GrantFiled: October 15, 2003Date of Patent: August 15, 2006Assignees: Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd., National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.Inventors: Keiji Sumiya, Hiroyuki Ishibashi, Hideo Murayama, Naoko Inadama, Takaji Yamashita, Tomohide Omura
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Patent number: 7087905Abstract: The radiation three-dimensional position detector of the present invention comprises a scintillator unit (10), a light receiving element (20) and an operation section (30). The scintillator unit is disposed on the light incident plane of the light receiving element, wherein the scintillator unit is comprised of four layers of scintillator arrays, each layer being composed of scintillator cells arrayed in 8 row ?8 column matrix. The scintillator cell produces scintillation light corresponding to the radiation absorbed thereby. The optical characteristic of a partition material for separating neighboring scintillator cells, which faces at least one same side face is different between a scintillator cell Ck1,m,n included in one scintillator array layer (k1-th layer) and a scintillator cell Ck2,m,n included in the other scintillator array layer (k2-th layer).Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2004Date of Patent: August 8, 2006Assignees: National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Shimadzu Corporation, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.Inventors: Hideo Murayama, Naoko Inadama, Keishi Kitamura, Takaji Yamashita
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Publication number: 20050087693Abstract: A depth of interaction detector with uniform pulse-height comprises a multi-layer scintillator obtained by coupling at least two scintillator cells on a plane and then stacking the planar coupled scintillator cells, in layers, up to at least two stages and a light-receiving element connected to the bottom face of each scintillator cell of this multi-layer scintillator, wherein the detector is provided with a means for discriminating the position of a scintillator cell, which receives radiant rays and emits light rays and a means for making, uniform, the quantity of the light emitted from each scintillator cell and received by the light-receiving element.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 15, 2003Publication date: April 28, 2005Inventors: Keiji Sumiya, Hiroyuki Ishibashi, Hideo Murayama, Naoko Inadama, Takaji Yamashita, Tomohide Omura
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Publication number: 20040178347Abstract: The radiation three-dimensional position detector of the present invention comprises a scintillator unit (10), a light receiving element (20) and an operation section (30). The scintillator unit is disposed on the light incident plane of the light receiving element, wherein the scintillator unit is comprised of four layers of scintillator arrays, each layer being composed of scintillator cells arrayed in 8 row—8 column matrix. The scintillator cell produces scintillation light corresponding to the radiation absorbed thereby. The optical characteristic of a partition material for separating neighboring scintillator cells, which faces at least one same side face is different between a scintillator cell Ck1,m,n included in one scintillator array layer (k1-th layer) and a scintillator cell Ck2,m,n included in the other scintillator array layer (k2-th layer).Type: ApplicationFiled: February 26, 2004Publication date: September 16, 2004Applicants: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, SHIMADZU CORPORATION, HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS K.K.Inventors: Hideo Murayama, Naoko Inadama, Keishi Kitamura, Takaji Yamashita