Abstract

The main focus of this work is to compare different timing measurement methods of individual silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays and dual-ended readout PET detectors. Two lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) crystal arrays with 3.10×3.10×20 - mm3 crystals, enhanced specular reflector (ESR), and barium sulfate (BaSO4) reflector and one LYSO crystal array with 1.88×1.88×20 - mm3 crystals and BaSO4 reflector with dual-ended read out by 8×8 SiPM arrays of 3×3 - mm2 active pixel area were measured. Signals of the SiPM arrays were processed individually using 64 channel PETsys TOFPET2 application specific integrated circuits designed for time-of-flight PET applications. For the SiPM arrays, an energy square-weighted average timing method using the timings of the fastest 2 SiPM pixels was found to provide the best-coincidence timing resolutions (CTRs). For the dual-ended readout detectors, the method of using the energy-weighted average timings of the two SiPM arrays provided the best CTR of 234 ps for the detector using 3.10×3.10×20 - mm3 crystals and ESR reflector, 239 ps for the detector using 3.10×3.10×20 - mm3 crystals and BaSO4 reflector, and 275 ps for the detector using 1.88×1.88×20 - mm3 crystals and BaSO4 reflector for an energy window of 410–610 keV. The dual-ended readout detectors developed in this work provide better CTRs than those of single-ended readout detectors and a high-3-D position resolution which can be used in the future to develop whole-body PET scanners to simultaneously achieve uniform high-spatial resolution, high sensitivity and high-timing resolution.

Title

Comparison of Timing Measurement Methods of Dual-Ended Readout Scintillator Array PET Detectors

Authors

Ming Niu, Zhonghua Kuang, Xiaohui Wang, Ning Ren, Ziru Sang, Tao Sun, Zheng Liu, Zhanli Hu , Zheng Gu, Yongfeng Yang

Journal Information

IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences (Volume: 8, Issue: 6, July 2024)

DOI

10.1109/TRPMS.2024.3382990

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