Study of Silicon Photomultipliers for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Application

A relatively new photodetector, the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), is well suited for PET applications. It has similar sensitivity and gain to the industry standard photomultiplier tube (PMT), but has advantages such as smaller size and insensitivity to magnetic field. These properties make this detector an active area of research in the PET field. I will study a simplified setup, comprised of two antiparallel SiPM/LSO coupled detectors using a Na-22 positron source. The coincidence timing and energy resolution is determined using two methods, a CAMAC system and a fast oscilliscope. The best coincidence time resolution, 660 ps FWHM, was obtained using the digital oscilliscope. At best, the energy resolution was found to be 16.4% FWHM. Results using two types of SiPM, 1600 and 400 pixel, are presented. Data from a GEANT4 simulation of the described setup are also shown.