Ceramic Phoswich With Fused Optical Elements, Method Of Manufacture Thereof And Articles Comprising The Same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017145307-A1
Application number	US-201514951921-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 25, 2015
Priority date	Nov 25, 2015
Publication date	May 25, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a scintillator comprising a plurality of garnet compositions in a single block having the structural formula (1):
M 1 a M 2 b M 3 c M 4 d O 12   (1)

where O represents oxygen, M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , and M 4 represents a first, second, third and fourth metal that are different from each other, where the sum of a+b+c+d is about 8, where “a” has a value of 2 to 3.5, “b” has a value of 0 to 5, “c” has a value of 0 to 5 “d” has a value of 0 to 1, where “b” and “c”, “b” and “d” or “c” and “d” cannot both be equal to zero simultaneously, where M 1 is rare earth element including gadolinium, yttrium, lutetium, or a combination thereof, M 2 is aluminum or boron, M 3 is gallium and M 4 is a codopant; wherein two compositions having identical structural formulas are not adjacent to each other and wherein the single block is devoid of optical interfaces between different compositions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A scintillator comprising:
a plurality of garnet compositions in a single block having the structural formula (1):
M 1 a M 2 b M 3 c M 4 d O 12   (1)

where
O represents oxygen,
M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , and M 4 represents a first, second, third and fourth metal that are different from each other,
the sum of a+b+c+d is about 8,
“a” has a value of about 2 to about 3.5,
“b” has a value of 0 to about 5,
“c” has a value of 0 to about 5
“d” has a value of 0 to about 1,
where “b” and “c”, “b” and “d” or “c” and “d” cannot both be equal to zero simultaneously,
M 1 is a rare earth element comprising gadolinium, yttrium, lutetium, scandium, or any combination of thereof,
M 2 is aluminum or boron,
M 3 is gallium, and
M 4 is a codopant and comprises one of thallium, copper, silver, lead, bismuth, indium, tin, antimony, tantalum, tungsten, strontium, barium, boron, magnesium, calcium, cerium, yttrium, scandium, lanthanum, lutetium, praseodymium, terbium, ytterbium, samarium, europium, holmium, dysprosium, erbium, thulium or neodymium;
wherein two compositions having identical structural formulas are not adjacent to each other and
wherein the single block is devoid of optical interfaces between different compositions.

2 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where for M 1 , a portion of the gadolinium can be substituted with one or more of yttrium, gadolinium, lutetium, lanthanum, terbium, praseodymium, neodymium, cerium, samarium, europium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, ytterbium, scandium or combinations thereof.

3 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where M 2 is aluminum.

4 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where
“a” has a value 2.4 to 3.2, “b” has a value of 2 to 3, “c” has a value of 1 to 4, and “d” has a value of 0.001 to 0.5.

5 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where
“a” has a value of about 3, “b” has a value of about 2.1 to about 2.5, “c” has a value of about 2 to about 3 and “d” has a value of about 0.003 to about 0.3.

6 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the plurality of compositions are in powder form or gel form prior to an application of pressure to produce the block.

7 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the plurality of garnet compositions comprise gadolinium-aluminum-gallium garnet, gadolinium-yttrium-gallium-aluminum garnet, gadolinium-scandium-gallium-garnet, and/or gadolinium-lutetium-aluminum-gallium garnet.

8 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the scintillator comprises Gd 3 Al 2 Ga 3 O 12 and Gd 3 Al 3 Ga 2 O 12 .

9 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the scintillator comprises Gd 2.5 Y 0.5 Al 2 Ga 3 O 12 and Gd 2.5 Y 0.5 Al 3 Ga 2 O 12 .

10 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the plurality of compositions comprises n different compositions and where n is 2 to 100.

11 . The scintillator of claim 1 , where the plurality of compositions are arranged in 2 or more different directions.

12 . An article having the scintillator of claim 1 .

13 . The article of claim 12 , where the article is a positron emission tomography (PET), or computed tomography (CT), or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) machine.

14 . A method comprising:
disposing a plurality of compositions adjacent to each other; where the plurality of compositions each have the structural formula (1):
M 1 a M 2 b M 3 c M 4 d O 12   (1)

where
O represents oxygen,
M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , and M 4 represents a first, second, third and fourth metal that are different from each other,
the sum of a+b+c+d is about 8,
“a” has a value of about 2 to about 3.5,
“b” has a value of 0 to about 5,
“c” has a value of 0 to about 5,
“d” has a value of 0 to about 1,
where “b” and “c”, “b” and “d” or “c” and “d” cannot both be equal to zero simultaneously,
M 1 is a rare earth element comprising gadolinium, yttrium, lutetium, scandium, or a combination of thereof,
M 2 is aluminum or boron,
M 3 is gallium,
M 4 is a codopant and comprises one of thallium, copper, silver, lead, bismuth, indium, tin, antimony, tantalum, tungsten, strontium, barium, boron, magnesium, calcium, cerium, yttrium, scandium, lanthanum, lutetium, praseodymium, terbium, ytterbium, samarium, europium, holmium, dysprosium, erbium, thulium or neodymium; wherein two compositions having identical structural formulas are not adjacent to each other;
compressing the compositions into one another; and
annealing the compositions to form a single block that is devoid of optical interfaces between different compositions.

15 . The method of claim 14 , where the plurality of compositions adjacent to each other are in the form of powders, in the form of gels, or in the form of powders and gels prior to compressing the compositions into one another.

16 . The method of claim 14 , where the annealing and compressing are conducted simultaneously.

17 . The method of claim 14 , where M 1 is a rare earth metal, where the rare earth metal is cerium, aluminum, scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, lutetium, praseodymium, terbium, ytterbium, samarium, europium, holmium, dysprosium, erbium, thulium and neodymium.

18 . The method of claim 14 , where M 1 is gadolinium.

19 . The method of claim 14 , where the annealing is conducted at a temperature of 500 to 1750° C.

20 . The method of claim 14 , where the compressing is conducted at a pressure of 1 MPa to 500 MPa.

Assignees

• Siemens Medical Solutions Usa Inc

Inventors

• Mintzer Robert A
• Cohen Peter Carl
• Andreaco Mark S
• Schmand Matthias J

Classifications

• G21K2004/06

  with a phosphor layer · CPC title

• C09K11/7769

  Oxides (C09K11/7768 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C09K11/77

  containing rare earth metals · CPC title

• G02B6/29332

  Wavelength selective couplers, i.e. based on evanescent coupling between light guides, e.g. fused fibre couplers with transverse coupling between fibres having different propagation constant wavelength dependency · CPC title

• G21K2004/02

  characterised by the external panel structure · CPC title