Next generation scalable time-of-flight PET - FastSight

PROJECT SUMMARY Novel long axial PET scanners with axial field of view that can be greater than 1m offer increased sensitivity and allow fast dosimetry and biodistribution for pharmacokinetic studies to enable personalized Targeted Radionuclide Therapy (TRT). However, they pose significant challenges both financially and logistically for siting. In this context, recent and ongoing advances in Time-of-flight (TOF) PET technology afford a rare opportunity to improve signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) without increasing cost associated with axial coverage as is the case with total body PET technology. In fact, very high timing resolution performance would enable just the opposite: very sparse angular coverage of the patient, long axial field coverage (>1m) for a significantly lower cost total body PET scanner and/or affordable brain PET. The aim of this proposal is to develop and optimize the building block of a modular TOF PET prototype scanner with flexible geometry based on pixelated L(Y)SO scintillators and novel integrated photosensor consisting of SiPMs and electronics with an unprecedented Coincidence Timing Resolution (CTR) mostly limited by the light travel time spread in the scintillator pixels and ~3x better than TOF resolution of leading state-of-the-art scanners.