SymPET, a waveform digitizing "System on Chip" for ultra-high resolution TOF PET: design concept and preliminary...

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Instrumentation
• Nuclear Engineering

Background:

• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems require advanced readout electronics for high-resolution imaging.
• Current technologies face limitations in timing precision, channel density, and power consumption.
• Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) detectors are crucial for Time-of-Flight (TOF) PET applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop SymPET, a low-power, high channel density, waveform-digitizing readout microchip.
• To improve timing precision and enable advanced features for SiPM-based TOF PET.
• To address challenges in heat dissipation for high-resolution PET designs.

Main Methods:

• Development of a "System on Chip" (SoC) architecture for waveform digitization.
• Integration of features like random accessible analog storage, input triggering, and on-chip biasing.
• Implementation of waveform feature extraction for optimizing system parameters.
• Focus on controlling systematic effects impacting timing precision.

Main Results:

• SymPET demonstrates less than 10 picoseconds (ps) timing jitter.
• Achieves this performance within a reasonable power budget.
• Offers substantial improvement over existing readout solutions.
• Enables optimization of throughput, speed, and buffer length.

Conclusions:

• SymPET provides superior timing jitter performance for TOF PET applications.
• Facilitates high-channel density and limited-angle PET designs, such as ultra-high resolution brain scanners.
• Addresses critical heat dissipation management for advanced PET systems requiring high spatial and timing resolution.