Signal to Noise Ratio of APD-Based Monolithic Scintillator Detectors for High Resolution PET

Maas, Marnix C.; Schaart, Dennis R.; Laan, D.J. van der; Dam, Herman T. van; Huizenga, J.; Brouwer, J.C.; Bruyndonckx, Peter; Lemaître, Cédric; Eijk, C.W.E. van

doi:10.1109/tns.2008.921493

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The parameter r d is discussed in the next section. The APD gain, excess noise factor and ENC (referred to the input of the preamplifier) were measured to be approximately M = 60, J = 2 and σ e = 600 electrons, respectively (Maas et al 2008). It is noted that the ENC includes contributions of the APD leakage current and (pre-) amplifier noise.…”

Section: Properties Of the Apd Arraymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The design and operating principle of the monolithic PET detectors investigated in this work have been described in detail elsewhere (Maas et al 2008(Maas et al , 2009). Here, we briefly summarize the features relevant for the present study.…”

Section: Description Of the Pet Detectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two detector geometries were simulated that have previously been characterized experimentally (Maas et al 2008(Maas et al , 2009). The measured results can thus be used to validate the simulations.…”

Section: Description Of the Pet Detectormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical simulation of monolithic scintillator detectors using GATE/GEANT4

et al. 2010

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Much research is being conducted on position-sensitive scintillation detectors for medical imaging, particularly for emission tomography. Monte Carlo simulations play an essential role in many of these research activities. As the scintillation process, the transport of scintillation photons through the crystal(s), and the conversion of these photons into electronic signals each have a major influence on the detector performance; all of these processes may need to be incorporated in the model to obtain accurate results. In this work the optical and scintillation models of the GEANT4 simulation toolkit are validated by comparing simulations and measurements on monolithic scintillator detectors for high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET). We have furthermore made the GEANT4 optical models available within the user-friendly GATE simulation platform (as of version 3.0). It is shown how the necessary optical input parameters can be determined with sufficient accuracy. The results show that the optical physics models of GATE/GEANT4 enable accurate prediction of the spatial and energy resolution of monolithic scintillator PET detectors.

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Section: Properties Of the Apd Arraymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Description Of the Pet Detectormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical simulation of monolithic scintillator detectors using GATE/GEANT4

et al. 2010

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“…The second distribution, N Σ , accounts for the positioning error resulting from the finite signal-to-noise ratio of the detector signals, which is determined by statistical variations in the number of photons produced per scintillation event and the fraction of photons detected, by the APD excess noise factor and dark current, by electronic noise, etc (see e.g. Maas et al (2008)). …”

Section: Correction For Test Beam Diametermentioning

confidence: 99%

Monolithic scintillator PET detectors with intrinsic depth-of-interaction correction

et al. 2009

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We developed positron emission tomography (PET) detectors based on monolithic scintillation crystals and position-sensitive light sensors. Intrinsic depth-of-interaction (DOI) correction is achieved by deriving the entry points of annihilation photons on the front surface of the crystal from the light sensor signals. Here we characterize the next generation of these detectors, consisting of a 20 mm thick rectangular or trapezoidal LYSO:Ce crystal read out on the front and the back (double-sided readout, DSR) by Hamamatsu S8550SPL avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays optimized for DSR. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the detector point-spread function (PSF) obtained with a rectangular crystal at normal incidence equals ∼1.05 mm at the detector centre, after correction for the ∼0.9 mm diameter test beam of annihilation photons. Resolution losses of several tenths of a mm occur near the crystal edges. Furthermore, trapezoidal crystals perform almost equally well as rectangular ones, while improving system sensitivity. Due to the highly accurate DOI correction of all detectors, the spatial resolution remains essentially constant for angles of incidence of up to at least 30• . Energy resolutions of ∼11% FWHM are measured, with a fraction of events of up to 75% in the full-energy peak. The coincidence timing resolution is estimated to be 2.8 ns FWHM. The good spatial, energy and timing resolutions, together with the excellent DOI correction and high detection efficiency of our detectors, are expected to facilitate high and uniform PET system resolution.

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“…On the other hand, PET detectors with a monolithic scintillator block have been investigated because they are expected to provide higher resolution than do segmented crystal arrays [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. In addition to PS-PMTs [6,[13][14][15], an avalanche photodiode (APD) array [7,9,11,12] and a Geiger mode APD [8] have been used as photosensors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basic performance of a large area PET detector with a monolithic scintillator

Yoshida¹,

Inadama²,

Osada

et al. 2011

Radiol Phys Technol

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Conventionally, block detectors, which consist of a two-dimensionally segmented scintillator array with inserted reflectors, are often used for PET. On the other hand, PET detectors with a monolithic block have been investigated because they are expected to offer higher resolution than do segmented crystal arrays. However, previous reports focused on detectors dedicated as small-animal PET, and the thickness was not good enough to stop 511-keV radiation. We developed a PET detector that uses a large and thick monolithic LYSO and 64-channel PS-PMT. When the LYSO was covered with reflectors, the spatial resolution, which was 3 mm FWHM at the center, rapidly became worse at the edge. We eliminated the loss of spatial resolution by replacing the reflectors with black paper, but the light output was decreased. Therefore, we concluded that spatial resolution and light output were in a trade-off relationship due to the edge effect of scintillation light.

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Signal to Noise Ratio of APD-Based Monolithic Scintillator Detectors for High Resolution PET

Cited by 18 publications

References 37 publications

Optical simulation of monolithic scintillator detectors using GATE/GEANT4

Optical simulation of monolithic scintillator detectors using GATE/GEANT4

Monolithic scintillator PET detectors with intrinsic depth-of-interaction correction

Basic performance of a large area PET detector with a monolithic scintillator

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