Lung counting with a highly segmented HPGe detector.

A highly segmented High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector was used to measure ²⁴¹ Am activity located inside the lungs of an anthropomorphic phantom with various active and passive shield configurations. It was found that the background suppression shield does not play a significant role in reducing the Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) after veto, based on the segmentation in the depth direction of the HPGe, when measuring low-energy gamma rays. A reduction of up to 57% in the MDA was achieved. The MDA could be further improved by a thinner lateral segmentation and an optimized anti-Compton shield coupled with an active or passive backplate. The new detector application would be particularly useful in mobile whole-body counting units, where the natural background radiation poses a challenge when measuring low-energy gamma rays.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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