Method for improving timing resolution using depth of interaction correction in pet detector

Abstract

A method for determining depth-of-interaction correction in a PET system includes modifying crystal and readout configuration to improve depth-dependent arrival profile of scintillation photons, creating a photon dispersion model within a scintillator crystal, measuring photon arrival profile of individual gamma ray event, deriving an estimated depth-of-interaction, and deriving a gamma ray event time based on a time stamp corrected with the estimated depth-of-interaction. The method can include modeling dispersion at different depths of interaction within the scintillator crystal; providing a reflector layer to delay back-reflected photons; providing two respective readouts for the same gamma ray event from two respective pixels optically coupled by a backside reflector or modified crystal configuration, calculating a time difference of the photon arrival at the two pixels, and estimating the depth-of-interaction by applying a statistical weighting. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program code to instruct a processor to determine depth-of-interaction correction is also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.