Design and preliminary performance of a readout ASIC for CZT based high resolution PET

Position emission tomography based brain imaging of small mice requires detection systems with very high spatial resolution, which is conditioned by pixel size. Cutting and polishing scintillating crystals into small pixels is not straightforward. CZT detectors can operate at room temperature, and their manufacturing processes permit detectors with small pixel sizes. The high charge yield favors an improvement in energy resolution when compared with scintillating crystals.