Performance Evaluation of FastIC+ for sub-100 ps TOF-PET Module Development

Le résumé fourni par la source

The electronics used in Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography (ToF-PET) scanners combine low power consumption, minimal noise and cost-effectiveness requirements. Furthermore, scalability is essential to support larger detector arrays and more complex systems. For that purpose, we developed FastIC+, an 8-channel application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with an integrated Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC). This ASIC, manufactured in 65 nm CMOS technology, provides a digitized measurement of the arrival time and energy of the detected event with a power consumption of 12.5 mW per channel. In this work, we evaluate the performance of FastIC+ for ToF-PET applications using different scintillators and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). When coupling$2 \times 2 \times 3 ~\text{mm}^{3}$Fast-LGSO crystals to$3 \times 3 ~\text{mm}^{2}$SiPMs, we achieved a sub-100 ps Coincidence Time Resolution (CTR) value of ($85+/-1$) ps FWHM. For LYSO:Ce, Ca crystals with a larger size measuring$2.8 \times 2.8 \times 20 ~\text{mm}^{3}$coupled to$4 \times 4 ~\text{mm}^{2}$SiPMs, we achieved ($130+/-1$) ps FWHM. The performance evaluation was extended to a different LYSO:Ce, Ca crystal array measuring$3 \times 3 \times 20 ~\text{mm}^{3}$composed of 16 channels against one LYSO:Ce, Ca reference crystal measuring$2 \times 2 \times 3 ~\text{mm}^{3}$, both systems coupled to$3 \times 3 ~\text{mm}^{2}$SiPMs. All channels provided CTR values ranging from 130 ps to 150 ps. We will prioritize the study of the implementation of a double-sided readout using FastIC+ for long crystals. This will compensate for the degradation in CTR and provide depth-of-interaction information to correct parallax error at system level.

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