Virtual pet detector and quasi-pixelated readout scheme for pet

Abstract

When designing detector arrays for diagnostic imaging devices, such as PET or SPECT devices, a virtual detector, or pixel, combines scintillator crystals () with photodetectors () in ratios that deviate from the conventional 1:1 ratio. For instance, multiple photodetectors can be glued to a single crystal to create a virtual pixel () which can be software-based or hardware-based. Light energy and time stamp information for a gamma ray hit on the crystal can be calculated using a virtualizer processor or using a trigger line network and time-to-digital converter logic. Additionally or alternatively, multiple crystals () can be associated with each of a plurality of photodetectors (). A gamma ray hit on a specific crystal is then determined by a table lookup of adjacent photodetectors () that register equal light intensities, and the crystal () common to such photodetectors () is identified as the location of the hit.