PETsys technology based on LSO crystals, silicon photo-sensors and integrated electronics allows improving substantially the performance of the PET system. Our SiPM and APD based gamma ray detectors use dedicated highly integrated circuits (ASIC) with low-noise and low-power. These ASICs are the key to scalability of PETsys electronics systems to several tens of thousand channels without compromising performance.

Our PET detector modules are fully pixelated with one-to-one crystal to photo-sensor matching. The baseline detector module has a spatial resolution of ~2 mm and the high-resolution option has resolution of ~1 mm (whole-body PET scanners in the market reach not better than 5 mm). Modules with double-readout option have unmatched depth-of-interaction (DoI) resolution of 2.8 mm in a full scanner.

SiPM-based modules achieve a spectacular coincidence time resolution of 0.25 ns (FWHM). The coincidence time resolution (CTR) in current WBS is of the order of 1-2 ns (some high-end systems achieve in some conditions 0.5 ns). Our excellent time resolution permits the use of Time-of-Flight (ToF) information to obtain very sharp and clean PET images.

PETsys electronics technology allows for this improvement at a very moderate cost and with reduced impact on system integration. Our highly integrated electronics keeps the cost per channel low, keeps the system very compact and the power consumption low.

Our PET detector modules are designed for easy integration into a large whole-body PET scanner. They are also well suited for manufacturers developing PET scanners with specific geometries for particular applications. Detector modules may need to be tailored to the application considered, but the electronics can basically remain the same.

Clinical Trials

The validity of PETsys high-resolution technology has been demonstrated in clinical trials in Hospital Marseille and ICNAS, Coimbra, with two machines (prototype and pre-production). Several cases of cancerous tumors were identified which are not visible in the whole-body PET images. Medical doctors conducting the clinical trials have presented the results in international scientific conferences. Our ClearPEM technology (image in the right side) identifies multifocal lesions. Standard whole-body PET (image in the left side) doesn’t.

In surgery, it is essential to know that there are multifocal lesions in order to remove them all when extracting the cancer tumor.