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Electronic Readout for Next-Generation Ultra-Fast Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography Systems

Award Number: R21EB034885
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/05/2024
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 09/30/2026

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Electronic Readout for Next-Generation Ultra-Fast Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography Systems - Project Summary Clinical time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) systems capable of excellent coincidence time resolution (CTR) promise to drastically enhance effective 511 keV photon sensitivity. The ability to more precisely localize annihilation origins along system response lines constrains event data, providing improved signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) and reconstructed image quality by associating 511 keV photons more closely to their true origin. This SNR enhancement increases as CTR is improved, and a major goal of ongoing PET instrumentation research and development is to push system CTR ≤100 ps full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). At this level of performance, events are constrained ≤1.5 cm, providing more than a five-fold increase in SNR relative to a system with no TOF capability. Advanced systems capable of ≤100 ps FWHM CTR would more than double or quadruple the effective 511 keV system sensitivity, in comparison to state-of-the-art, clinical TOF-PET systems (250-400 ps FWHM CTR). Thus, advancing CTR is also a pathway for greatly improved system sensitivity without increasing detection volume and associated costs. This level of timing performance can be achieved with state- of-the-art (SoA) electronic readout for silicon photomultiplier (SiPM)-based scintillation detectors in single pixel, bench top coincidence measurements. Readout capable of demonstrating experimental limits in achievable CTR leverage low noise, high frequency signal processing to facilitate a single photon time response that is near the limit of the SiPMs architecture. This readout strategy can optimally exploit fast luminescence and prompt optical photon populations, and promising measurements show detector concepts employing this readout can greatly advance TOF-PET detector CTR, relative to SoA in clinical systems. However, the technique employs power hungry components which make the electronics chain impractical for channel-dense TOF-PET detectors and systems. If compact, tractable readout topologies that achieve this performance can be created, they offer a platform for the development and translation of novel detector concepts to push system CTR ≤100 ps. We propose to design and experimentally evaluate an analog, multichannel application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that implements SoA front end signal processing and time pickoff methods into a compact form factor, capable of bringing SoA CTR demonstrated for new PET detector concepts into systems. Thus, when coupled with existing high resolution, multichannel time-to-digital converters (TDCs), this new development thereby offers a direct pathway to realize greatly advanced CTR in large scale, clinical PET imagers.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2025	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA	1 CYCLOTRON RD	BERKELEY	CA	94720	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	2	3/10/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $160,787 )
2025	2025	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA	1 CYCLOTRON RD	BERKELEY	CA	94720	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	2	4/8/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$160,787
														Subtotal = $160,787

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $301,664 )
2024	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA	1 CYCLOTRON RD	BERKELEY	CA	94720	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	001	1	5/23/2024	NEW	$51
2024	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA	1 CYCLOTRON RD	BERKELEY	CA	94720	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	1	4/4/2024	NEW	$301,613
														Subtotal = $301,664

Grand Total All Awards = $462,451

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Electronic Readout for Next-Generation Ultra-Fast Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography Systems

Award Number: R21EB034885

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/05/2024

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 09/30/2026

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