Performance of FBK SiPMs coupled to PETA3 read-out ASIC for PET application

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Abstract

In this paper we show the energy and timing resolution performances of FBK SiPMs coupled to the PETA3 ASIC for PET application. We developed a measurement set-up to characterize single SiPMs coupled to scintillator exploiting the detector stack developed within the HYPERImage project. In this way we are able to characterize the combined SiPM/ASIC performance with the same signal chain (from the sensor to the ASIC board) used in the PET system. We show that using two scintillator detectors, composed of a 3×3×5mm3 LYSO crystal coupled to a 3×3mm2 SiPM, an intra-stack CRT of about 200 ps FWHM can be obtained.

Introduction

In the framework of the HYPERImage and Sublima EU projects we are developing a SiPM-based high-performance TOF-PET system to be integrated in a MR. A first pre-clinical system has been already mounted and initial PET and MR simultaneous images acquired proving the full compatibility of the two machines [1]. While calibration and validation of this system is in progress, we keep developing new PET components in particular SiPM and ASIC. Concerning the SiPM, we are working to improve both the basic performance (PDE and noise) and the operability in a real system (e.g. breakdown voltage uniformity and temperature stability). Concerning the ASIC, main improvements are related to the trigger scheme, less power consumption and lower input noise.

In this paper we show the performance as a gamma ray detector for PET of the latest SiPM and ASIC (called PETA3) versions.

Section snippets

Method

Besides characterizing new SiPM and ASIC releases independently, we built a test set-up based on the detection unit (the stack) used in the real HYPERImage PET system [1]. We replaced the SiPM tile with a PCB adapter able to host two single SiPMs and connect them to two channels of the ASIC (see Fig. 1). In this way we can test the performance in terms of energy resolution and coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the entire detection chain in a system-like configuration, that is including all

Results

For space reasons, in this paper we show the results of a single configuration consisting of two 3×3mm2 SiPMs with 67×67μm2 cell size each coupled to 3×3×5mm3, teflon(©) wrapped, LYSO crystals in coincidence. The detectors are irradiated with 511 keV gamma rays produced by a 22Na radioactive source. We choose a cubic scintillation crystal to get rid of the impact on the timing performance of the different irradiation direction on the crystal in the two set-ups.

The energy resolution we obtained

Conclusion

In this paper we showed selected results from a detailed study we are carrying out on the PET detection unit (called stack) developed for the HYPERImage and Sublima projects. In particular, we developed a test set-up, based on the stack, to characterize two single SiPMs in coincidence in a system-like condition. In this way it is possible to study and optimize the detection chain operation in all its aspects (from sensor to electronics) as well as to test the behavior of new components simply

Acknowledgments

This work is partially supported by the EU FP7 projects HYPERImage, Grant Agreement N 201651, and SUBLIMA, Grant Agreement N 241711.

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