A 100-ps time-resolution CMOS time-to-digital converter for positron emission tomography imaging applications

Swann, B.K.; Blalock, Benjamin J.; Clonts, L.G.; Binkley, D.M.; Rochelle, J.M.; Breeding, E.; Baldwin, K.M.

doi:10.1109/jssc.2004.835832

Cited by 122 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Recently, more accurate methods have been introduced for measuring smaller time differences [9] using time to voltage converters. However, estimating the effective attenuation along each LOR with different values in a blank and transmission scan provided the tools required to make a more precise estimate of the timing drift.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method for determination of the timing stability of PET scanners

Thompson

Goertzen

2005

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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Abstract-We report on the timing resolution and stability of the MicroPET R4 PET scanner. Its detectors have energy resolutions in the range of 25% and previously reported timing resolutions 3.2 ns. Our preliminary evaluation of this instrument showed that artefact-free normalization sinograms could only be obtained with a timing window of 10 ns or more in spite of a timing resolution of 3.2 ns. This instrument uses high-speed electronics albeit with 2-ns timing clock. We performed sham transmission scans with nothing in the field of view, and a range of timing windows from 2 to 14 ns and used a 14-ns timing blank scan to generate effective attenuation sinograms as a function of timing window. These showed trues count-rates which fit well to a ERF ( ) function. However, the effective attenuation value, which should be 1.0, changes from block to block and becomes very high in some blocks ( 3.5 at 6 ns) suggesting the need for timing alignment. A method was devised to measure the timing stability to a precision better than the timing bin width of 2 ns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method for determination of the timing stability of PET scanners

Thompson

Goertzen

2005

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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“…between two electrical pulses needs to be measured with picosecond precision. Examples of such applications are timeof-flight sensors, optical correlation spectroscopes, positron emission tomography instruments, and pulse position demodulators, just to name a few [1,2,3]. Besides high time resolution, typically 100ps or less, it is often useful to achieve high throughput to optimize system speed and detection efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 17ps time-to-digital converter implemented in 65nm FPGA technology

Favi

Charbon

2009

Proceedings of the ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays

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This paper presents a new architecture for time-to-digital conversion enabling a time resolution of 17ps over a range of 50ns with a conversion rate of 20MS/s. The proposed architecture, implemented in a 65nm FPGA system, consists of a pipelined interpolating time-to-digital converter (TDC). The TDC comprises a coarse time discriminator and a fine delay line, capable of sustained operation at a clock frequency of 300MHz. A Turbo version of the circuit implements a pipelined interpolating TDC with suppressed dead time to reach a conversion rate of 300MS/s at the expense of a systematic asymmetry that requires fast error correction. The TDCs proposed in this paper can be compensated for process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations using a conventional charge pump based feedback or a digital calibration technique. Results demonstrate the suitability of the approach for a variety of applications involving high-precision ultra-fast time discrimination, such as optical lifetime sensing, time-of-flight cameras, high throughput comlinks, RADARs, etc.

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“…Single photon sensitivity in CMOS SPADs may be obtained via time--gating (Tosi et al, 2009), a TAC (Swann et al, 2004) or a TDC (Richardson et al, 2009a). An individual CMOS--SPAD equipped with a TDC is capable of TCSPC (Niclass et al, 2007).…”

Section: Time Resolved Detection System For Parallelised Tcspcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifocal multiphoton microscopy with adaptive optical correction

et al. 2013

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Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is a remarkably versatile technique in biologicalimaging. MPM provides increased depth over confocal imaging and can be combined with other imaging techniques such as fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), adding functional information. FLIM read--out is relatively straightforward using time--correlated single photon counting (TCSPC). Fluorescence lifetime detection enhances the power of multiphoton imaging to allow three dimensional, concentration independent, measurements of environmental parameters such as pH, Oxygen tension and Ca 2+ in addtion to the interaction or conformational modification of proteins by Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET); the latter is a particular focus of the Dimbleby research groups at King's CollegeLondon. However, there are significant limitations in both FLIM and MM.Limitations of TCSPC--FLIM include prolonged acquisition times along with signal and resolution degradation as a function of depth. This thesis demonstrates advancements multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging through improvements in two principal areas: speed and resolution at depth.In order to improve acquistion rates a multifocal multiphoton microscope (MMM) capable of rapid, parallelized TCSPC--FLIM was developed --MegaFLI. Acquisitions demonstrate rapid 3--dimensional, high temporal resolution FLIM in vivo Zebrafish.Performed by massively parallel excitation/detection the speed is signficantly improved by a factor of 64.In parallel to the MegaFLI project, a second microscope employing adaptive optical correction has been developed. The introduction of Adaptive Optics (AO) serves to improve imaging quality by counteracting the refractive index heterogeneities introduced by the sample, limiting the imaging depth. Incorporated with a single beam scanning FLIM system, a pupil--segmentation AO--TCSPC--FLIM demonstrates improved signal--to--noise ratio (SNR) and resolution, permiting a more accurate determination of fluorescent lifetime in turbid media. 3 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIPThe work present is my own work with the exception of TRI2, which was developed The introduction (Chapter 1) concentrates on optical methods developed in the context of multiphoton microscopy (MPM) or more specifically two--photon microscopy (TPM) (Denk et al., 1990). TPM enables long--term imaging of in vivo biological specimens, image generation at increased tissue depth, and higher signal--to--noise images compared to wide--field and confocal approaches (Helmchen and In comparison to confocal microscopy, two--photon microscopy (TPM) offers considerable benefits since excitation is confined to a femtolitre volume in the vicinity of the focal plane, reducing overall photobleaching and phototoxicity of thick samples (Centonze and White, 1998;Denk et al., 1990;Helmchen and Denk, 2005;Williams et al., 2001). Out--of--focus excitation is avoided due to the localization of the excitation making the confocal pinhole obsolete (Amos and Where is the numerical aperture of the obj...

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A 100-ps time-resolution CMOS time-to-digital converter for positron emission tomography imaging applications

Cited by 122 publications

References 16 publications

A method for determination of the timing stability of PET scanners

A method for determination of the timing stability of PET scanners

A 17ps time-to-digital converter implemented in 65nm FPGA technology

Multifocal multiphoton microscopy with adaptive optical correction

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