Compact conscious animal positron emission tomography scanner

An apparatus to serially transfer annihilation information in a conscious animal positron emission tomography (PET) scanner used to image a portion of a conscious animal, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one pair of opposing blocks, each block of the at least one pair of opposing blocks comprising N detector channels, an nth detector channel being one of the N detector channels and corresponding to a physical location of an nth detector on the block, each block of the at least one pair of opposing blocks comprising:
• an nth time signal generator associated with the nth detector channel, a jth time pulse being input to the nth time signal generator on the nth detector channel, the jth time pulse comprising a position representing a time-of-occurrence of a jth event, the nth time signal generator generating a jth time signal, the jth time signal representing a time-of-occurrence of the jth time pulse, the jth time pulse being asynchronous to a clock signal, j being an integer from 1 to J, J representing a total number of events recorded on the block;
• an address signal generator generating an nth address representing the nth detector channel at which the jth event is recorded, the address signal generator generating a jth address signal, the jth address signal comprising the nth address representing the nth detector channel at which the jth event occurred, the jth address signal being synchronous to the clock signal;
• and
• a detector channel signal generator, generating a jth detector channel signal, the jth detector channel signal comprising the jth time signal and the jth address signal, and outputting a composite signal serially over a data link, the composite signal comprising at least one of the J detector channel signals from at least one of the N detector channels.

A compact conscious animal positron emission tomography (PET) scanner for acquiring images of a portion of a conscious animal, comprising:

• a ring tomograph, the ring tomograph comprising an inner surface, the inner surface mounting onto and substantially surrounding the portion of the conscious animal, at least one block pair, at least one of the at least one block pair comprising a first block and a second block, the second block being positioned opposite the first block on the ring tomograph, each of the first block and the second block comprising:
• a scintillator layer, the scintillator layer outputting at least one photon in response to a jth event, the jth event being one of a total of J events recorded on the each of the first block and the second block;
• a detection array, the detection array comprising N detectors, the nth detector being one the N detectors in the detection array, the nth detector being associated with an nth detector channel, the nth detector outputting a jth detection signal in response to detecting the at least one photon corresponding to the jth event;
• a front-end array, the front end array comprising N front ends, the nth front end being one of the N front ends in the front end array, the nth front end being associated with the nth detector channel, the nth front end outputting a jth time pulse in response to receiving the jth detection signal;
• a serial encoder comprising:
• N time signal generators, the nth time signal generator inputting the jth time pulse on the nth detector channel, the nth detector channel being one of the N detector channels, the jth time pulse comprising a position representing a time-of-occurrence of the jth event, the nth time signal generator generating a jth time signal, the jth time signal representing a time-of-occurrence of the jth time pulse, the jth time pulse being asynchronous to a clock signal;
• an address signal generator, the address signal generator generating an nth address, the nth address representing the nth detector channel at which the jth event is recorded, the address signal generator generating a jth address signal, the jth address signal comprising the nth address representing the nth detector channel at which the jth event is recorded, the jth address signal being synchronous to the clock signal;
• and
• a detector channel signal generator, the detector channel signal generator generating a jth detector channel signal, the jth detector channel signal comprising the jth time signal and the jth address signal, the detector channel signal generator serially outputting at least one of the detector channel signals from at least one of the N detector channels.