Performance evaluation of the mouse version of the LabPET II PET scanner.

The LabPET II is a new positron emission tomography technology platform designed to achieve submillimetric spatial resolution imaging using fully pixelated avalanche photodiodes-based detectors and highly integrated parallel front-end processing electronics. The detector was designed as a generic building block to develop devices for preclinical imaging of small to mid-sized animals and for clinical imaging of the human brain. The aim of this work is to assess the physical characteristics and imaging performance of the mouse version of LabPET II scanner following the NEMA NU4-2008 standard and using high resolution phantoms and in vivo imaging applications.

Dual-Threshold Time-over-Threshold Nonlinearity Correction for PET Detectors.

The Time-over-Threshold (ToT) analog-to-digital signal processing approach provides a power-efficient and cost-effective technique to extract all relevant information from detectors in high-energy physics and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. In this work, three calibration methods were investigated to correct the inherent nonlinear response of the ToT data using 1) -ray sources of various energies, 2) internal electronic gain variation in the LabPET II ASIC in combination with a single energy -ray source, and 3) internal gain variation along with an embedded pulse charge generator in replacement of a -ray source. The electronic gain calibration technique was shown to achieve equivalent correction accuracy as the -ray sources calibration.

Performance investigation of LabPET II detector technology in an MRI-like environment.

The EMI-compatibility of the LabPET II detection module (DM) to develop a high-resolution simultaneous PET/MRI system is investigated. The experimental set-up evaluates the performance of two LabPET II DMs in close proximity to RF coils excited at three different frequencies mimicking the electromagnetic environments of 3 T, 7 T, and 9.4 T MRI scanners.