Intraoperative Probes

For several decades now, intraoperative probes have been employed to assist in the detection and removal of tumors. In recent years, intraoperative probes have become an important, well-established clinical tool for the management of cancer, particularly for the detection of sentinel lymph nodes.

Probes for both gamma and beta radiation are now available, as well as small field of view imaging probes. In all cases, the probe is formed of a scintillator coupled to a small photodetector. In the case of the imaging probes, the photosensor is in the form of an array. SiPM sensors are particularly suited to the task of the photodetection due to their compact and rugged nature and their 30V operation. Due to the high detection efficiencies now available with SensL SiPM sensors (>50%), excellent energy resolution is achievable with a variety of scintillators.

This page gives details of recommended products, some related academic papers and some SensL tech notes that may aid a user interested in creating probes using SensL SiPM sensors.

Recommended Products for Intraoperative Probes

J-Series sensors have the highest PDE (>50% @ 420nm) allowing highly efficient detection of scintillation photons even at low gamma energies.

C-Series SiPM have excellent PDE matched to the most commonly-used scintillators, and have an ultra low dark count rate, which aids detection of the lowest possible energies.

Intraoperative Probe Related Papers

Helpful Documents

SiPM Experiment Guide (Tech Note)

TN-SiPM_SMA_Experiment_Guide

This Tech Note provides a guide for users who are new to SiPM sensors for the set-up and initial testing of the sensor.

Product Selection Guide (Product Brief)

PB-Product_Selection_Guide

This document gives an overview of SensL’s SiPM sensors, highlighting the differences and providing an overview of which sensors are available in a particular size or package.

Readout Methods for Arrays of SiPM (Tech Note)

This Tech Note discusses the various readout methods for arrays of sensors, specifically with regard to medical imaging applications.

How to Evaluate and Compare SiPM (White Paper)

WP-Evaluate_and_Compare_SiPM

This white paper highlights some of the things to consider when selecting an SiPM sensor.