System Tradeoffs in Gamma-Ray Detection Utilizing SPAD Arrays and Scintillators

Abstract. Recent tests of a single module of the Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomography system (J-PET) consisting of 30 cm long plastic scintillator strips have proven its applicability for the detection of annihilation quanta (0.511 MeV) with a coincidence resolving time (CRT) of 0.266 ns. The achieved resolution is almost by a factor of two better with respect to the current TOF-PET detectors and it can still be improved since, as it is shown in this article, the intrinsic limit of time resolution for the determination of time of the interaction of 0.511 MeV gamma quanta in plastic scintillators is much lower. As the major point of the article, a method allowing to record timestamps of several photons, at two ends of the scintillator strip, by means of matrix of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) is introduced. As a result of simulations, conducted with the number of SiPM varying from 4 to 42, it is shown that the improvement of timing resolution saturates with the growing number of photomultipliers, and that the 2 x 5 configuration at two ends allowing to read twenty timestamps, constitutes an optimal solution. The conducted simulations accounted for the emission time distribution, photon transport and absorption inside the scintillator, as well as quantum efficiency and transit time spread of photosensors, and were checked based on the experimental results. Application of the 2 x 5 matrix of SiPM allows for achieving the coincidence resolving time in positron emission tomography of ≈ 0.170 ns for 15 cm axial field-of-view (AFOV) and ≈ 0.365 ns for 100 cm AFOV. The results open perspectives for construction of a cost-effective TOF-PET scanner with significantly better TOF resolution and larger AFOV with respect to the current

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“…in refs. ,2012b), Spanoudaki Levin 2011, Fishburn et al 2010 and the comprehensive account on this topic may be examined e.g. in ref.…”

Section: Cramér-rao Lower Limit On the Resolution Of Hit-time Reconstmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time resolution of the plastic scintillator strips with matrix photomultiplier readout for J-PET tomograph

et al. 2016

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“…The accuracy and distance range tradeoffs resulting from limited photo-efficiency, high noise, low signal-tobackground ratio, and excessive crosstalk, and photoresponse non-uniformity (PRNU) have been addressed in three recently appeared works that are more broad in scope than TOF [18], [19], [35]. As expected, higher photon statistics are advantageous in most cases; however, photon timestamps or photon counts must be used with care, with the awareness of the underlying statistical behavior of photons in a photon bunch generated by an illuminator.…”

Section: Single-chip Tof Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SPAD arrays can also be used in scanning mode, whereas the large number of SPADs, when used in an analog [16] or digital [17] silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrangement, reduces dead time and improves robustness to background illumination. Resilience to background light can be improved by looking at the inner statistics of laser pulses using order-statistics [18], whereas the non-Poisson, non-i.i.d. nature of photon bunch inside a laser pulse is exploited [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to time-of-flight imaging

Charbon

2014

IEEE SENSORS 2014 Proceedings

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Abstract-Time-of-flight imaging is a subset of imaging science interested in the detection of the time-of-flight of certain waves, usually light, to reconstruct the position of objects in a 3D scene. Optical time-of-flight imagers have existed for decades, but it is only with the introduction of solid-state sensors with fast (global) shutters, that they have become compact and prone to mass-production. In these sensors, light propagation can be frozen in time and space and its time-of-flight can be evaluated on the pixel-by-pixel basis to accurately reconstruct 3D scenes and volumes.Applications include gaming, gesture recognition, and virtual keyboards for short-range cameras, security, 3D video monitoring, and robotic operation for medium-range cameras, safety and pedestrian avoidance for long-range cameras, and LIDAR telemetry and landscape monitoring for ultra-long-range cameras. Also based on similar concepts are non-vision applications, such as time-of-flight positron emission tomography, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, and time-resolved optical coherent tomography, to name a few.

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“…Digital silicon photomultipliers (D-SiPMs) have profited from this trend, with higher granularity of detection for improved coincidence time resolution (CRT) at a relatively small cost in terms of photon detection efficiency (PDE) [2]. Higher granularity, in spatial and temporal domains, leads to fundamental time resolution limits, enabling time-of-flight PET to achieve significant improvements in image quality [3] [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SPADnet: A fully digital, networked approach to MRI compatible PET systems based on deep-submicron CMOS technology

Charbon

Bruschini

Veerappan

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (2013 NSS/MIC)

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1-This paper is the first comprehensive presentation of the SPADnet concept. SPADnet is a fully digital, networked MRI compatible time-of-flight PET system, exploiting the speed and integration density of deep-submicron CMOS technologies. The core enabling technologies of SPADnet are a sensor device comprising an array of 8x16 pixels, each composed of 4 miniSiPMs with in situ time-to-digital conversion, a multi-ring network to filter, carry, and process data produced by the sensor devices at 2Gbps, and a 130nm CMOS process enabling massproduction of photonic modules that are optically interfaced to scintillator crystals. The SPADnet photonic modules comprise a matrix of tightly packed sensor devices; each module is networked in multiple rings, where coincidence pairs are identified and readily used in reconstruction algorithms, enabling scalable, MRI compatible pre-clinical PET systems for multi-modal imaging.

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System Tradeoffs in Gamma-Ray Detection Utilizing SPAD Arrays and Scintillators

Cited by 89 publications

References 24 publications

Time resolution of the plastic scintillator strips with matrix photomultiplier readout for J-PET tomograph

Time resolution of the plastic scintillator strips with matrix photomultiplier readout for J-PET tomograph

Introduction to time-of-flight imaging

SPADnet: A fully digital, networked approach to MRI compatible PET systems based on deep-submicron CMOS technology

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