Development of low power high speed readout electronics for high resolution PET with LSO and APD arrays

An ASIC-based readout electronics scheme is under development for high resolution, compact PET imagers based on independent readout of all channels of LSO scintillator and avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays. Depth of interaction is obtained by readout of both ends of the LSO crystals. A low power, highly integrated design is critical. We report here on a discrete electronics prototype, running at 22 mW per channel for the preamplifier and discriminator. The measured timing resolution is 3.6 ns FWHM, 9.2 ns full width at one tenth maximum, relative to an LSO/PMT detector, energy resolution is 13.3% FWHM at 511 keV, and depth of interaction position resolution is 2.5 mm FWHM throughout the full length of the crystal. Work is in progress towards an ASIC and a full scale prototype detector module suitable for a high resolution compact PET instrument.