High-frequency SiPM readout advances measured coincidence time resolution limits in TOF-PET

Scintillator based radiation detectors readout by SiPMs successively break records in their reached time resolution. Nevertheless, new challenges in time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) and high energy physics are setting unmatched goals in the 10 ps range. Recently it was shown tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics in medicine & biology 2019-02, Vol.64 (5), p.055012-055012
Main Authors: Gundacker, Stefan, Turtos, Rosana Martinez, Auffray, Etiennette, Paganoni, Marco, Lecoq, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cherenkov emission in scintillators
coincidence time resolution
Electrons
fast timing
high-frequency electronics
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
LSO:Ce codoped with Ca
Positron-Emission Tomography - instrumentation
Scintillation Counting - instrumentation
single photon time resolution
Time Factors
TOF-PET
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Summary:Scintillator based radiation detectors readout by SiPMs successively break records in their reached time resolution. Nevertheless, new challenges in time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) and high energy physics are setting unmatched goals in the 10 ps range. Recently it was shown that high frequency (HF) readout of SiPMs significantly improves the measured single photon time resolution (SPTR), allowing to evaluate the intrinsic performance of large area devices; e.g. FBK NUV-HD SiPMs of mm2 area and 40 m single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) size achieve 90 ps FWHM. In TOF-PET such readout allows to lower the leading edge detection threshold, so that the fastest photons produced in the crystal can be utilized. This is of utmost importance if a high SPTR and prompt Cherenkov light generated by the hot-recoil electron upon 511 keV photo-absorption should improve timing. This paper shows that high-frequency bipolar transistor readout of state-of-the-art SiPMs coupled to high-performance scintillators can substantially improve the best achievable coincidence time resolution (CTR) in TOF-PET. In this context a CTR of 158 3 ps FWHM with mm3 BGO crystals coupled to FBK SiPMs is achieved. This faint Cherenkov signal is as well present in standard LSO scintillators, which together with low SPTR values (
ISSN:0031-9155
1361-6560
1361-6560
DOI:10.1088/1361-6560/aafd52