Crystal timing offset calibration method for time of flight PET scanners

In time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET), precise calibration of the timing offset of each crystal of a PET scanner is essential. Conventionally this calibration requires a specially designed tool just for this purpose. In this study a method that uses a planar source to measure the crystal timing offsets (CTO) is developed. The method uses list mode acquisitions of a planar source placed at multiple orientations inside the PET scanner field-of-view (FOV). The placement of the planar source in each acquisition is automatically figured out from the measured data, so that a fixture for exactly placing the source is not required. The expected coincidence time difference for each detected list mode event can be found from the planar source placement and the detector geometry. A deviation of the measured time difference from the expected one is due to CTO of the two crystals. The least squared solution of the CTO is found iteratively using the list mode events. The effectiveness of the crystal timing calibration method is evidenced using phantom images generated by placing back each list mode event into the image space with the timing offset applied to each event. The zigzagged outlines of the phantoms in the images become smooth after the crystal timing calibration is applied. In conclusion, a crystal timing calibration method is developed. The method uses multiple list mode acquisitions of a planar source to find the least squared solution of crystal timing offsets.