Photo-Detectors for Time of Flight Positron Emission Tomography (ToF-PET)

Sensors

Virginia Ch. Spanoudaki¹ 

[1] Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) and Department of Radiology, Stanford University, 300 Pasteur Drive 94305, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: positron emission tomography;    time of flight;    silicon photo-multipliers;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s101110484

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We present the most recent advances in photo-detector design employed in time of flight positron emission tomography (ToF-PET). PET is a molecular imaging modality that collects pairs of coincident (temporally correlated) annihilation photons emitted from the patient body. The annihilation photon detector typically comprises a scintillation crystal coupled to a fast photo-detector. ToF information provides better localization of the annihilation event along the line formed by each detector pair, resulting in an overall improvement in signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the reconstructed image. Apart from the demand for high luminosity and fast decay time of the scintillation crystal, proper design and selection of the photo-detector and methods for arrival time pick-off are a prerequisite for achieving excellent time resolution required for ToF-PET. We review the two types of photo-detectors used in ToF-PET: photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) with a special focus on SiPMs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.