TOFPET ASIC for PET applications

A 64-channel ASIC for Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography (TOF PET) imaging has been designed and simulated. The circuit is optimized for the readout of signals produced by the scintillation of a L(Y)SO crystal optically coupled to a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). Developed in the framework of the EndoTOFPET-US collaboration [1], the ASIC is integrated in the external PET plate and performs timing, digitization and data transmission for 511 keV and lower-energy events due to Compton scattering.

Multi-event buffering capability allows event rates up to 100 kHz per channel. The channel cell includes a low input impedance low-noise current conveyor and two trans-impedance amplifier branches separately optimized for energy and time resolution. Two voltage mode discriminators generate respectively a fast trigger for accurate timing and a signal for time-over-threshold calculation, used for charge measurement. The digitization of these signals is done by two low-power TDCs, providing coarse and fine time stamps that are saved into a local register and later managed by a global controller, which builds-up the 40-bit event data and runs the interface with the data acquisition back-end.

Running at 160 MHz the chip yields a 50 ps time binning and dissipates ≊ 7 mW per channel (simulated for 40 kHz event rate p/channel) for high capacitance photodetectors (9 mm² active area Silicon Photomultiplier with 320 pF terminal capacitance). The minimum SNR of 23.5 dB expected with this capacitance should allow triggering on the first photoelectron to achieve the envisaged timing performance for a TOF-PET system.