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Welcome to our comprehensive profile on Positron Corp.
(OTCBB: POSC)
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RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
The Company's original POSICAM™ system are based upon proprietary technology initially developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center ("UTHSC") in Houston, Texas, under a $24 million research program that began in 1979 and funded by UTHSC and The Clayton Foundation for Research ("Clayton Foundation"), a Houston-based, non-profit organization. Since that time, the Company has funded further product development and commercialization of the system. Since 2006, through the wholly owned subsidiary IPT and the IPT wholly-owned subsidiary, QMT, the Company has focused on the development of solid state photodetectors and new PET devices based on solid state photodetector technology. These development activities are costly and critical to the Company's ability to develop and maintain improved systems.
The Company will begin to perform R&D on the Pharm-Assist in an effort to create a smaller more cost effective model sold into the cardiology laboratory. The device will be named Cardio-Assist. R&D will be performed in Ottawa.
Solid-State Technologies Research and Development
The Company has a highly qualified and focused research and development team. The team is lead by Prof. Valeri Saveliev, an inventor of silicon based quantum photo detectors (QPD) that can replace expensive photomultiplier tubes (PMT) in nuclear imaging devices.
Currently the Company has an agreement with Kotura Corporation, a worldwide leader in silicon photonics. Kotura designs, manufactures and markets CMOS optical components and provides custom chip design, fabrication, and packaging services; its in-house silicon CMOS fabrication ensures quick turnaround on design iterations. Kotura is performing fabrication services (the feasibility phase) for a solid state photo detector. The goal of this agreement is to test new designs of QPD and transfer and improve the technology of fabrication of the solid state photo detectors. The first prototypes of a solid state photo detector have been delivered by Kotura in August 2007 and through an agreement with University of Maryland are currently being tested at the University’s facilities. It is planned that in Phase II of the agreement with Kotura the prototypes should be optimized for medical applications to enhance their sensitivity to green light and photo detection efficiency.
It is expected that the resolution of PET cameras based on QPDs can be increased up to 2.0 mm from current industry standards (3-5 mm). Because the new photo detectors are very small, low-voltage and need less electronics than photomultiplier tubes, it will be possible to significantly decrease the size of today’s whole body PET scanners, and enable the design of custom geometry, organ-specific PET devices. The new devices with QPDs are expected to be considerably smaller and less costly and can open a new molecular imaging market of specialty physicians (neurologists, urologists, cardiologists, etc.). Positron is positioned to utilize its technical expertise in nuclear imaging and take a leading role in development and commercialization of these new generation cameras, including compact organ specific cameras. If successful, the current R&D program would give Positron the ability to have state-of-the-art leading edge PET and PET/CT equivalent technology in the future. If the Company's revitalization program is successful, the Company should enjoy new respect and significantly higher revenue from a menu of diverse new PET-related products and services.
PET System Application - Quantum Photo Detectors allow the development and construction of a new generation of PET Imaging Systems and combined PET Imaging Systems:
- High Efficiency of QPDs gives the possibility to get very high energy resolution;
- Extremely High Timing Response allows to use time of flight techniques;
- Compact size of QPD allows direct readout of every crystal of PET Detecting System individually, in order to increase the space resolution;
- Depth of Interaction Method can be implemented by positioning of QPDs on the both end of Scintillation Crystals;
- Non Sensitivity to high magnetic field allows build combine PET system, for example PET/MRI Systems.
Form factor is another key advantage of QPDs. Building a nuclear scanner (PET or SPECT) comprised of QPDs instead of PMTs allows for a thinner ring (for PET) or thinner detector heads (for SPECT), which essentially allows them to construct small form-factor devices, which will benefit the clinicians in real estate and provisions requirements. This is extremely important in the case of private practices and over-populated hospital facilities. |
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