Engineering Developments on the UBC-TRIUMF Modified PETT VI Positron Emission Tomograph

A tomograph with the PETT VI geometry has been built with improvements generally applicable to such devices. In addition to improved temperature control, the gantry features commercial CsF detectors with the newer Amperex photomultiplier tubes (PMT's). Much of the coincidence support circuitry is of an original design, utilizing new "fast" TTL family devices. A local DEC 11/23 microprocessor provides for routine diagnostic and reliability checking, gantry control, and acquisition of single detector counting rates. Image reconstruction and display is performed by a medium size VAX 11/780 computer, operating in a time-sharing environment. Some preliminary performance characteristics of the machine have been measured. The reconstructed resolution in-slice, as well as the reconstructed slice thickness, has been measured as a function of radius for both "straight" and "cross" slices.