APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CHANNEL COUNT REDUCTION IN SOLID-STATE-BASED POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY
First Claim
1. A data acquisition device for a gamma ray detector, comprising:
- a summing circuit configured to sum a plurality of electrical signals from a corresponding plurality of sensors coupled to an array of scintillation crystals to generate a first signal, the plurality of sensors converting received light into the plurality of electrical signals, wherein the light is generated by a crystal of interaction in response to incident gamma rays generated by an annihilation event;
a delay summing circuit configured to selectively delay and sum the plurality of electrical signals to generate a second signal;
a first circuit configured to receive the first signal and to determine an energy and an event time of the first signal; and
a second circuit configured to receive the first signal and the second signal and to determine, when the first signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, which sensor of the plurality of sensors corresponds to a location of the crystal of interaction.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for channel count reduction in solid-state-based positron emission tomography that multiplexes read-outs from photo-detectors using a sum delay circuit, including a sum channel and a delay-sum channel. The sum channel sums signals from sensors in an array and is digitized to extract the timing and energy information. A delay-sum channel includes a discrete delay line that introduces a known delay after each sensor, creating a time signature for the sensor, followed by a summing circuit that adds the delayed signals. The delay-sum channel is digitized using a high speed counters to extract location information. Start and Stop signals for the counter are derived when the sum channel output and the delay-sum channel output cross a pulse ID threshold, respectively. The pulse ID threshold is chosen to minimize the Compton scatter and not clip the photo-peak events.
73 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A data acquisition device for a gamma ray detector, comprising:
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a summing circuit configured to sum a plurality of electrical signals from a corresponding plurality of sensors coupled to an array of scintillation crystals to generate a first signal, the plurality of sensors converting received light into the plurality of electrical signals, wherein the light is generated by a crystal of interaction in response to incident gamma rays generated by an annihilation event; a delay summing circuit configured to selectively delay and sum the plurality of electrical signals to generate a second signal; a first circuit configured to receive the first signal and to determine an energy and an event time of the first signal; and a second circuit configured to receive the first signal and the second signal and to determine, when the first signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, which sensor of the plurality of sensors corresponds to a location of the crystal of interaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A gamma ray detector, comprising:
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an array of scintillation crystals; an array of sensors; and a plurality of data acquisition devices, each data acquisition device including a summing circuit configured to sum a plurality of electrical signals from a corresponding plurality of sensors coupled to the array of scintillation crystals to generate a first signal, the plurality of sensors converting received light into the plurality of electrical signals, wherein the light is generated by a crystal of interaction in response to incident gamma rays generated by an annihilation event; a delay summing circuit configured to selectively delay and sum the plurality of electrical signals to generate a second signal; a first circuit configured to receive the first signal and to determine an energy and an event time of the first signal; and a second circuit configured to receive the first signal and the second signal and to determine, when the first signal exceeds a predetermined threshold, which sensor of the plurality of sensors corresponds to a location of the crystal of interaction. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A gamma ray detection method, comprising:
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generating a first signal by summing a plurality of electrical signals from a corresponding plurality of sensors coupled to an array of scintillation crystals, the plurality of sensors converting received light into the plurality of electrical signals, wherein the light is generated by a crystal of interaction in response to incident gamma rays generated by an annihilation event; generating a second signal by selectively delaying and summing the plurality of electrical signals; determining an energy and an event time of the first signal; and determining, based on the second signal, which sensor of the plurality of sensors corresponds to a location of the crystal of interaction, when the first signal exceeds a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification