A TIMING SYSTEM FOR POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY

THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL INVESTIGATE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A GENERAL-PURPOSE, SINGLE-CHIP CONSTANT-FRACTION DISCRIMINATORAND SINGLE-CHIP OR MINIMAL-CHIP-SET TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER USING ADVANCED SEMICUSTOM INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY. THE GOAL OF THESE NEW IMPLEMENTATIONS IS TO ACHIEVE MORE COST-EFFECTIVE, COMPACT, RELIABLE, AND BETTER PERFORMING CONSTANT-FRACTION DISCRIMINATOR AND TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER FUNCTIONS COMPARED TO EXISTING DISCRETE DESIGNS. THE INVESTIGATION WILL INCLUDE MAPPING THE DESIRED CIRCUIT FUNCTIONS INTO EXISTING SEMICUSTOM INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT OFFERINGS AND THEN COMPARING THESE IMPLEMENTATIONS WITH EXISTING DISCRETE IMPLEMENTATIONS. THE FEASIBILITY OF PROCEEDING TO DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE THESE NEW IMPLEMENTATIONS WILL THEN BE EVALUATED.