Terragni Giulia, Nadig Vanessa, Tribbia Elena, di Gangi Stefano, Toumparidou Ekaterini, Meyer Thomas, Marton Johann, Schulz Volkmar, Gundacker Stefan, Pizzichemi Marco, Auffray Etiennette
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
Technical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Phys Med Biol. 2025 Jan 17;70(2). doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ada19a.
Time resolution is crucial in positron emission tomography (PET) to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio and image quality. Moreover, high sensitivity requires long scintillators, which can cause distortions in the reconstructed images due to parallax effects. This study evaluates the performance of a time-of-flight (TOF)-PET module that makes use of a single-side readout of a4×43.1×3.1×15mmLYSO:Ce matrix with an array of4×4silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and a light guide to extract high-resolution TOF and depth of interaction (DOI) information.This study assesses the performance of the detector prototype using the commercially available TOFPET2 ASIC and SiPMs from various producers. DOI and TOF performance are compared to results using custom-made NINO 32-chip based electronics.Using a Broadcom NUV-MT array, the detector module read out by the TOFPET2 ASIC demonstrates a DOI resolution of 2.6 ± 0.2 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) and a coincidence time resolution (CTR) of 216 ± 6 ps FWHM. When read out using the NINO 32-chip based electronics, the same module achieves a DOI resolution of 2.5 ± 0.2 mm and a CTR of 170 ± 5 ps.The prototype module, read out by commercial electronics and using state-of-the-art SiPMs, achieves a DOI performance comparable to that obtained with custom-made electronics and a CTR of around 200 ps. This approach is scalable to thousands of channels, with only a deterioration in timing resolution compared to the custom-made electronics, which achieve a CTR of 140 ps using a standard non-DOI module.
时间分辨率在正电子发射断层扫描（PET）中对于提高信噪比和图像质量至关重要。此外，高灵敏度需要长闪烁体，这会由于视差效应导致重建图像出现失真。本研究评估了一种飞行时间（TOF）-PET模块的性能，该模块利用4×4 3.1×3.1×15mm LYSO:Ce矩阵的单侧读出，搭配4×4硅光电倍增管（SiPM）阵列和光导来提取高分辨率的TOF和相互作用深度（DOI）信息。本研究使用市售的TOFPET2专用集成电路（ASIC）和来自不同生产商的SiPM评估了探测器原型的性能。将DOI和TOF性能与使用定制的基于NINO 32芯片的电子设备所得到的结果进行了比较。使用博通NUV-MT阵列，由TOFPET2 ASIC读出的探测器模块展示出半高全宽（FWHM）为2.6±0.2mm的DOI分辨率和FWHM为216±6ps的符合时间分辨率（CTR）。当使用基于NINO 32芯片的电子设备读出时，同一模块实现了2.5±0.2mm的DOI分辨率和170±5ps的CTR。由商业电子设备读出并使用最先进SiPM的原型模块实现了与定制电子设备相当的DOI性能以及约200ps的CTR。这种方法可扩展到数千个通道，与定制电子设备相比，只是时间分辨率有所下降，定制电子设备使用标准非DOI模块可实现140ps的CTR。
