Synchronization and Calibration of the 24-Modules J-PET Prototype With 300-mm Axial Field of View

• Published in: IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement Vol. 70; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Moskal, P., Bednarski, T., Niedzwiecki, Sz, Silarski, M., Czerwinski, E., Kozik, T., Chhokar, J., Bala, M., Curceanu, C., Grande, R. Del, Dadgar, M., Dulski, K., Gajos, A., Gorgol, M., Gupta-Sharma, N., Hiesmayr, B. C., Jasinska, B., Kacprzak, K., Kaplon, L., Karimi, H., Kisielewska, D., Klimaszewski, K., Korcyl, G., Kowalski, P., Krawczyk, N., Krzemien, W., Kubicz, E., Mohammed, M., Palka, M., Pawlik-Niedzwiecka, M., Raczynski, L., Raj, J., Sharma, S., Shivani, Shopa, R. Y., Skurzok, M., Stepien, E., Wislicki, W., Zgardzinska, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Attenuation; Calibration; Circuits; Cylindrical chambers; Diagnostic systems; Electronic circuits; Field of view; Jagiellonian-PET (J-PET); Light attenuation; Modules; Photomultipliers; Photonics; plastic scintillators; Plastics; Positron emission; positron emission tomography; Prototypes; Scintillation counters; Scintillators; Strips; Synchronism; Time synchronization; Tomography
• ISSN: 0018-9456; 1557-9662
• DOI: 10.1109/TIM.2020.3018515

Research conducted in the framework of the Jagiellonian-PET (J-PET) project aims to develop a cost-effective total-body positron emission tomography scanner. As a first step on the way to construct a full-scale J-PET tomograph from long strips of plastic scintillators, a 24-strip prototype was built and tested. The prototype consists of detection modules arranged axially forming a cylindrical diagnostic chamber with the inner diameter of 360 mm and the axial field-of-view of 300 mm. Promising perspectives for a low-cost construction of a total-body PET scanner are opened due to an axial arrangement of strips of plastic scintillators, which have a small light attenuation, superior timing properties, and the possibility of cost-effective increase of the axial field-of-view. The presented prototype comprises dedicated solely digital front-end electronic circuits and a triggerless data acquisition system which required the development of new calibration methods including time, thresholds, and gain synchronization. The system and elaborated calibration methods, including first results of the 24-module J-PET prototype, are presented and discussed. The achieved coincidence resolving time equals to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{\mathrm {CRT}}=490\pm 9 </tex-math></inline-formula> ps. This value can be translated to the position reconstruction accuracy <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\sigma (\Delta l) =18 </tex-math></inline-formula> mm, which is fairly position independent.