Estimation of Timing Resolution for Very Fast Time-Of-Flight Detectors in Monte Carlo Simulations

In PET imaging the depth of absorption in the crystal contributes to the detection time uncertainty, which impacts the time resolution of the scatter. In addition, affects the nature of the timing distribution. It was found that when Photon Travel Spread (PTS) in the crystal is the only factor affecting the timing uncertainty, in which case, a Laplace kernel might describe the measured data, more accurately. It was shown that for crystals as thin as 20 mm the RMSE of the Laplace was smaller than that of a Normal. While when PTS is combined with an addition coincidence detection resolution (CDR) then, a Normal achieves better RMSE, but with dependency on the crystal size. Results in terms of CRC, of a simulated NEMA phantom, confirmed that reconstruction using a Laplace kernel can model the data better for thicker crystals.