Design and Characterization of the Detector Readout Electronics Used in PETcoil: an RF-Penetrable TOF-PET Insert for PET/MRI

This article presents a comprehensive description of the front-end detector readout electronics designed for positron emission tomography (PET) coil, an RF-penetrable TOF-PET insert for PET/MRI. The highly integrated front-end design is based on a mixed ASIC + FPGA approach and incorporates carefully designed power, thermal, and MR compatibility solutions. Experimental results show that the front-end design achieves excellent coincidence time resolution of $\mathrm {238.9 \pm 0.3 ps }$ with real-time TDC bin width calibration and energy resolution of 10.9% ± 1.1%. The results also indicate good TOF position linearity and clear energy photopeaks. Additionally, the front-end design demonstrates the capability to handle high-count rate applications, with less than $\mathrm {0.005 \! \%}$ data loss or corruption observed when the count rate per SiPM channel increased from 3 to 20 kcps. The detector module temperature remained stable at $23.9{^{\circ} }\text{C} \pm $ 1.3°C throughout the entire 1-h experiment. These results indicate that this front-end design is feasible for high-sensitivity TOF PET applications.