Vanessa Nadig1, David Schug1,2, Bjoern Weissler1,2, Volkmar Schulz3,4,5,6. 1. Department of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 17, Aachen, 52074, Germany. 2. Hyperion Hybrid Imaging Systems GmbH, Pauwelsstrasse 19, Aachen, 52074, Germany. 3. Department of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 17, Aachen, 52074, Germany. volkmar.schulz@pmi.rwth-aachen.de. 4. Hyperion Hybrid Imaging Systems GmbH, Pauwelsstrasse 19, Aachen, 52074, Germany. volkmar.schulz@pmi.rwth-aachen.de. 5. III. Physikalisches Institut B, RWTH Aachen University, Otto-Blumenthal-Straße, Aachen, 52074, Germany. volkmar.schulz@pmi.rwth-aachen.de. 6. Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Forckenbeckstrasse 55, Aachen, 52074, Germany. volkmar.schulz@pmi.rwth-aachen.de.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Aiming to measure the difference in arrival times of two coincident γ-photons with an accuracy in the order of 200ps, time-of-flight positron emission tomography systems commonly employ silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and high-resolution digitization electronics, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This work evaluates the performance of the TOFPET2 ASIC, released by PETsys Electronics S.A. in 2017, dependent on its configuration parameters in multi-channel coincidence measurements. METHODS: SiPM arrays fabricated by different vendors (KETEK, SensL, Hamamatsu, Broadcom) were tested in combination with the ASIC. Scintillator arrays featuring different reflector designs and different configurations of the TOFPET2 ASIC software parameters were evaluated. The benchtop setup used is provided with the TOFPET2 ASIC evaluation kit by PETsys Electronics S.A. RESULTS: Compared to existing studies featuring the TOFPET2 ASIC, multi-channel performance results dependent on a larger set of ASIC configuration parameters were obtained that have not been reported to this extend so far. The ASIC shows promising CRTs down to 219.9 ps in combination with two Hamamatsu S14161-3050-HS-08 SiPM arrays (128 channels read out, energy resolution 13.08%) and 216.1 ps in combination with two Broadcom AFBR-S4N44P643S SiPM arrays (32 channels read out, energy resolution 9.46%). The length of the trigger delay of the dark count suppression scheme has an impact on the ASIC performance and can be configured to further improve the coincidence resolution time. The integrator gain configuration has been investigated and allows an absolute improvement of the energy resolution by up to 1% at the cost of the linearity of the energy spectrum. CONCLUSION: Measuring up to the time-of-flight performance of state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (ToF-PET) systems while providing a uniform and stable readout for multiple channels at the same time, the TOFPET2 ASIC is treated as promising candidate for the integration in future ToF-PET systems.
BACKGROUND: Aiming to measure the difference in arrival times of two coincident γ-photons with an accuracy in the order of 200ps, time-of-flight positron emission tomography systems commonly employ silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and high-resolution digitization electronics, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This work evaluates the performance of the TOFPET2 ASIC, released by PETsys Electronics S.A. in 2017, dependent on its configuration parameters in multi-channel coincidence measurements. METHODS: SiPM arrays fabricated by different vendors (KETEK, SensL, Hamamatsu, Broadcom) were tested in combination with the ASIC. Scintillator arrays featuring different reflector designs and different configurations of the TOFPET2 ASIC software parameters were evaluated. The benchtop setup used is provided with the TOFPET2 ASIC evaluation kit by PETsys Electronics S.A. RESULTS: Compared to existing studies featuring the TOFPET2 ASIC, multi-channel performance results dependent on a larger set of ASIC configuration parameters were obtained that have not been reported to this extend so far. The ASIC shows promising CRTs down to 219.9 ps in combination with two Hamamatsu S14161-3050-HS-08 SiPM arrays (128 channels read out, energy resolution 13.08%) and 216.1 ps in combination with two Broadcom AFBR-S4N44P643S SiPM arrays (32 channels read out, energy resolution 9.46%). The length of the trigger delay of the dark count suppression scheme has an impact on the ASIC performance and can be configured to further improve the coincidence resolution time. The integrator gain configuration has been investigated and allows an absolute improvement of the energy resolution by up to 1% at the cost of the linearity of the energy spectrum. CONCLUSION: Measuring up to the time-of-flight performance of state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (ToF-PET) systems while providing a uniform and stable readout for multiple channels at the same time, the TOFPET2 ASIC is treated as promising candidate for the integration in future ToF-PET systems.
Authors: David Schug; Jakob Wehner; Peter Michael Dueppenbecker; Bjoern Weissler; Pierre Gebhardt; Benjamin Goldschmidt; Andre Salomon; Fabian Kiessling; Volkmar Schulz Journal: Phys Med Biol Date: 2015-08-26 Impact factor: 3.609
Authors: Bjoern Weissler; Pierre Gebhardt; Peter M Dueppenbecker; Jakob Wehner; David Schug; Christoph W Lerche; Benjamin Goldschmidt; Andre Salomon; Iris Verel; Edwin Heijman; Michael Perkuhn; Dirk Heberling; Rene M Botnar; Fabian Kiessling; Volkmar Schulz Journal: IEEE Trans Med Imaging Date: 2015-04-29 Impact factor: 10.048
Authors: Bjoern Weissler; Pierre Gebhardt; Christoph W Lerche; Jakob Wehner; Torsten Solf; Benjamin Goldschmidt; Jane E Mackewn; Paul K Marsden; Fabian Kiessling; Michael Perkuhn; Dirk Heberling; Volkmar Schulz Journal: Phys Med Biol Date: 2014-08-14 Impact factor: 3.609
Authors: Benjamin A Spencer; Eric Berg; Jeffrey P Schmall; Negar Omidvari; Edwin K Leung; Yasser G Abdelhafez; Songsong Tang; Zilin Deng; Yun Dong; Yang Lv; Jun Bao; Weiping Liu; Hongdi Li; Terry Jones; Ramsey D Badawi; Simon R Cherry Journal: J Nucl Med Date: 2020-10-02 Impact factor: 10.057
Authors: Jakob Wehner; Bjoern Weissler; Peter Dueppenbecker; Pierre Gebhardt; David Schug; Walter Ruetten; Fabian Kiessling; Volkmar Schulz Journal: Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res A Date: 2014-01-11 Impact factor: 1.455
Authors: Marta Freire; Sara Echegoyen; Andrea Gonzalez-Montoro; Filomeno Sanchez; Antonio J Gonzalez Journal: Med Phys Date: 2022-06-21 Impact factor: 4.506