An 8×8 row-column summing readout electronics for preclinical positron emission tomography scanners

• Published in: 2009 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC) Vol. 2009; pp. 2376 - 2380
• Main Authors: Shih, Y.C., Sun, F.W., MacDonald, L.R., Otis, B.P., Miyaoka, R.S., McDougald, W., Lewellen, T.K.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 24.10.2009
• Subjects: Analog-digital conversion; Anodes; Circuit topology; Energy resolution; Photomultipliers; Positron emission tomography; Readout electronics; Signal resolution; Silicon; Timing
• ISBN: 9781424439614; 1424439612
• ISSN: 1082-3654; 1095-7863; 2577-0829
• DOI: 10.1109/NSSMIC.2009.5402200

This work presents a row/column summing readout electronics for an 8×8 silicon photomultiplier array. The summation circuit greatly reduces the number of electronic channels, which is desirable for pursuing higher resolution positron emission tomography scanners. By using a degenerated common source topology in the summation circuit, more fan-in is possible and therefore a greater reduction in the number of electronic channels can be achieved. The timing signal is retrieved from a common anode, which allows the use of a single fast-sampling analog to digital converter (ADC) for the timing channel and slower, lower power ADCs for the 64 spatial channels. Preliminary results of one row summation of the 8×8 readout electronics exhibited FWHM energy resolution of 17.8% and 18.3% with and without multiplexing, respectively. The measured timing resolution is 2.9 ns FWHM.