A low-noise CMOS front-end for TOF-PET

• Author(s): Rolo, M. D. ; Alves, L. N. ; Martins, E. V. ; Rivetti, A. ; Santos, M. B. ; Varela, J.
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/5198
• Origin: RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro
• Subject(s): Front-end electronics for detector readout; Analogue electronic circuits; PET PET/CT; Solid state detectors
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

An analogue CMOS front-end for triggering and amplification of signals produced by a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) coupled to a LYSO scintillator is proposed. The solution is intended for time-of-flight measurement in compact Positron Emission Tomography (TOF-PET) medical imaging equipments where excellent timing resolution is required (approximate to 100 ps). A CMOS 0.13 mu m technology was used to implement such front end, and the design includes preamplification, shaping, baseline holder and biasing circuitry, for a total silicon area of 500x90 mu m. Waveform sampling and time-over-threshold (ToT) techniques are under study and the front-end provides fast and shaped outputs for time and energy measurements. Post layout simulation results show that, for the trigger of a single photoelectron, the time jitter due to the pre-amplifier noise can be as low as 15 ps (FWHM), for a photodetector with a total capacitance of 70 pF. The very low input impedance of the pre-amplifier (approximate to 5 Omega) allows 1.8 ns of peaking time, at the cost of 10 mW of power consumption.