DOI resolution measurement and error analysis with LYSO and APDs

Spatial resolution degradation in PET occurs at the edge of Field Of View (FOV) due to parallax error. To improve spatial resolution at the edge of FOV, Depth-Of-Interaction (DOI) PET has been investigated and several methods for DOI positioning were proposed. In this paper, a DOI–PET detector module using two 8×4 array avalanche photodiodes (APDs) (Hamamatsu, S8550) and a 2 cm long LYSO scintillation crystal was proposed and its DOI characteristics were investigated experimentally. In order to measure DOI positions, signals from two APDs were compared. Energy resolution was obtained from the sum of two APDs’ signals and DOI positioning error was calculated. Finally, an optimum DOI step size in a 2 cm long LYSO were suggested to help to design a DOI–PET.