Performance evaluation of 98 CZT sensors for their use in gamma-ray imaging

98 SPEAR sensors from eV Products have been evaluated for their use in a portable Compton camera. The sensors have a 5 mm x 5 mm x 5 mm CdZnTe crystal and are provided together with a preamplifier. The energy resolution was studied in detail for all sensors and was found to be 6% on average at 59.5 keV and 3% on average at 662 keV. The standard deviations of the corresponding energy resolution distributions are remarkably small (0.6% at 59.5 keV, 0.7% at 662 keV) and reflect the uniformity of the sensor characteristics. For a possible outside use the temperature dependence of the sensor performances was investigated for temperatures between 15 and 45 deg Celsius. A linear shift in calibration with temperature was observed. The energy resolution at low energies (81 keV) was found to deteriorate exponentially with temperature, while it stayed constant at higher energies (356 keV). A Compton camera built of these sensors was simulated. To obtain realistic energy spectra a suitable detector response function was implemented. To investigate the angular resolution of the camera a [sup.137]Cs point source was simulated. Reconstructed images of the point source were compared for perfect and realistic energy and position resolutions. The angular resolution of the camera was found to be better than 10 deg. Index Terms--CdZnTe, Compton camera, CZT, energy resolution, gamma-ray, imaging, simulation.