Patent ID: 9442201
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: G01T

Claim Text:
1. A system for timing pick-off in time-of-flight positron emission tomography, the system comprising: an array of single photon avalanche diodes formed as complementary metal-oxide semiconductors; a summer connected with the single photon avalanche diodes of the array, the summer for analog summing pulses from the single photon avalanche diodes into a waveform of positron emission signal over time; a trigger circuit connected with the summer, the trigger circuit configured to generate a trigger signal based on a scintillation photon statistic of the waveform; and a timing circuit connected with the trigger circuit, the timing circuit configured to determine a start time of the trigger signal; wherein the photon statistic is a trigger threshold determined by a pulse lowest noise-to-slope ratio (NSR); and wherein the summer, trigger circuit, and timing circuit are free of a time-to-digital converter.