A positron emission tomograph based on LSO-APD modules with a sampling ADC read-out system for a students' advanced laboratory course.
A one-day laboratory course on positron emission tomography (PET) for the education of physics students and PhD students in medical physics has been set up. In the course, the physical background and the principles of a PET scanner are introduced. Course attendees set the system in operation, calibrate it using a (22)Na point source and reconstruct different source geometries filled with (18)F. The PET scanner features an individual channel read-out of 96 lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) scintillator crystals coupled to avalanche photodiodes (APD). The analog data of each APD are digitized by fast sampling analog to digital converters (SADC) and processed within field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) to extract amplitudes and time stamps. All SADCs are continuously sampling with a precise rate of 80MHz, which is synchronous for the whole system. The data is transmitted via USB to a Linux PC, where further processing and the image reconstruction are performed. The course attendees get an insight into detector techniques, modern read-out electronics, data acquisition and PET image reconstruction. In addition, a short introduction to some common software applications used in particle and high energy physics is part of the course.
Physik-Department E18, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Straße, 85748 Garching, Germany. florian.schneider@tum.de
Florian R
FR
Schneider
Alexander B
AB
Mann
Igor
I
Konorov
Gaspar
G
Delso
Stephan
S
Paul
Sibylle I
SI
Ziegler
D000703:Analog-Digital Conversion; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014584:User-Computer Interface