skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A low-noise, wide-band CMOS charge-sensitive preamplifier for use with APD/LSO PET detectors

Journal Article · · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/23.507167· OSTI ID:276477
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. CTI, Inc., Knoxville, TN (United States)
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Electrical and Computing Engineering Dept.

The recent emergence of LSO as a potential scintillator for positron emission tomography (PET) and recent improvements in avalanche photodiode (APD) technology offer encouragement that an APD/LSO based PET detector may be commercially viable in the near future. An important component of any APD/LSO based PET detector will be the preamplifier used to read out the low-level detector signals. Due to the large number of detectors (>18,000) in a high-resolution PET scanner, the preamplifier must be implemented as a monolithic integrated circuit. Additionally, in order to achieve the timing resolution required for high resolution PET, the preamplifier must have a large band-width and a low equivalent input noise voltage. This paper presents a CMOS charge-sensitive preamplifier design which uses local feedback to improve the performance of the common gate transistor. The modified cascode circuit is analyzed and compared with a previously reported simple folded cascode circuit. A prototype circuit was fabricated in a 2 {micro}m NWELL CMOS process. The prototype amplifier has a measured 10--90% rise-time of 7 ns with an external input capacitance of {approximately}6 pF and has an equivalent input noise voltage of {approximately}1.1 nV/rt-Hz above the flicker noise corner. A pulse height resolution of 14.3% FWHM and a timing resolution of 1.57 ns FWHM (vs. plastic) were obtained with the preamplifier, an Advanced Photonix 5 mm diameter beveled-edge APD and a 3.5 x 3.5 x 22 mm{sup 3} Teflon wrapped LSO crystal.

OSTI ID:
276477
Report Number(s):
CONF-951073-; ISSN 0018-9499; TRN: 96:017983
Journal Information:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 43, Issue 3Pt2; Conference: IEEE nuclear science symposium and medical imaging conference, San Francisco, CA (United States), 21-28 Oct 1995; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English