Sun Xishan, Lan Allan K, Bircher Chad, Deng Zhi, Liu Yinong, Shao Yiping
Department of Imaging Physics The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Unit 1902 Houston, Texas 77030 USA.
Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res A. 2011 Jun 11;641(1):128-135. doi: 10.1016/j.nima.2011.03.033.
A new signal processing method for PET application has been developed, with discrete circuit components to measure energy and timing of a gamma interaction based solely on digital timing processing without using an amplitude-to-digital convertor (ADC) or a constant fraction discriminator (CFD). A single channel discrete component time-based readout (TBR) circuit was implemented in a PC board. Initial circuit functionality and performance evaluations have been conducted. Accuracy and linearity of signal amplitude measurement were excellent, as measured with test pulses. The measured timing accuracy from test pulses reached to less than 300 ps, a value limited mainly by the timing jitter of the prototype electronics circuit. Both suitable energy and coincidence timing resolutions (~18% and ~1.0 ns) have been achieved with 3 × 3 × 20 mm(3) LYSO scintillator and photomultiplier tube-based detectors. With its relatively simple circuit and low cost, TBR is expected to be a suitable front-end signal readout electronics for compact PET or other radiation detectors requiring the reading of a large number of detector channels and demanding high performance for energy and timing measurement.
已开发出一种用于正电子发射断层扫描（PET）应用的新型信号处理方法，该方法采用分立电路元件，仅基于数字定时处理来测量伽马相互作用的能量和时间，无需使用幅度 - 数字转换器（ADC）或恒比鉴别器（CFD）。在印刷电路板上实现了单通道分立元件基于时间的读出（TBR）电路。已进行了初步的电路功能和性能评估。用测试脉冲测量时，信号幅度测量的准确性和线性度极佳。测试脉冲的测量定时精度达到小于300皮秒，该值主要受原型电子电路定时抖动的限制。使用3×3×20毫米³的LYSO闪烁体和基于光电倍增管的探测器，已实现了合适的能量分辨率和符合定时分辨率（分别约为18%和约1.0纳秒）。由于其电路相对简单且成本较低，TBR有望成为紧凑型PET或其他需要读取大量探测器通道并对能量和定时测量有高性能要求的辐射探测器的合适前端信号读出电子设备。
