SAIP2026

A test bench for Low-Cost Positron Emission Tomography

8 Jul 2026, 15:10

20m

Lecture Hall DL3 (University of the Western Cape)

Oral Presentation Track F - Applied Physics Applied Physics

Speaker

Simon Carthew (University of Cape Town)

Description

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a medical imaging modality that measures the relative activity of physiological processes within a patient. It is an expensive imaging modality that is primarily limited to high income countries. Our group is developing a low-cost PET detector that would improve access to PET in low- to middle-income countries. The design process is an incremental approach that requires a test environment to validate the performance of different detector modules. A test bench has been designed and manufactured where the performance of a detector module is measured. The test bench is an optically sealed and thermally regulated unit were detector modules and radioactive sources can be mounted in different positions. The PETsys SiPM readout system is used to digitize the signals generated in the detector module under test. Performance metrics are extracted from the raw data collected by the PETsys SiPM readout system using a custom software suite. This software suite incorporates a modular design that adapts to different experimental setups, accelerating the development process. A golden standard detector module was designed and procured to validate the performance of the test bench. This detector module is an eight-by-eight 15 mm thick LYSO scintillator array coupled to a Hamamatsu SiPM array. The measured energy and coincidence timing resolution of the golden standard detector module is 14.18 % and 283.3 ps respectively . These results are well within the expected values when using an unoptimized Data Acquisition system. A calibration routine was developed to remove the constant time-offsets introduced by the PETsys SiPM readout system. The raw QDC energy measurements are converted to real energy values using an energy calibration routine that utilizes the natural radiation produced in the LYSO scintillator pixels. The future goals of this project are to optimize the parameters of the PETsys SiPM readout system and test more novel detector modules designs.

Presentation materials

SimonCarthew_SAIP_2026.pdf