METHOD OF COOLING HIGH DENSITY ELECTRONICS

For nuclear imaging of a subject injected with a radioactive isotope, each detector array (18) is associated with event analyzer circuitry (64) and detector array signals due to gamma ray emissions indicative of nuclear decay are processed and reconstructed into an image of the subject anatomy. Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) crystals (20) outputs are amplified by complex low−noise integrated preamplifier circuits (P−ASIC 60) dissipating 300−500 mW each. Additionally, low−noise linear voltage regulators (66) providing regulated DC power to assure delivery of clean power to the P−ASIC (60), dissipate 150−250 mW each. In order to facilitate cooling of electrical components (60,66) which account for most of the dissipated power on circuit boards (62), the boards (62) are arranged parallel to each other and extend perpendicularly away from the detector array (18) to provide channels between the boards (62) through which cooling air is drawn by an array of fans.