Research on trigger technology of MRPC TOF-PET system and imaging results of $^{22}$Na radioactive source

Abstract

This study focuses on developing a self-triggered data acquisition system and a noise reduction algorithm for the Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography (TOF-PET) system. The system integrates a fast front-end amplifier, a waveform digitization module based on the DRS4 chip, and an efficient noise reduction algorithm to address challenges such as high noise trigger rates and precise gamma-ray detection. The proposed self-triggered system, through threshold discrimination, coincidence logic, and continuous oscillation check, reduces the noise trigger rate to 0.004 Hz. Experimental results show that the system accurately localizes and images the $^{22}$Na radioactive source, and has a good time resolution of 162 ps FWHM for 0.511 MeV gamma rays.