Compact readout electronics for position sensitive photomultiplier tubes

Abstract

Two charge multiplexed readout schemes for position-sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMTs) have been developed and evaluated. A two-stage split-charge method is compared to standard positional charge division. The resulting electronic circuits are highly compact and will be initially incorporated into a hand-held gamma ray imager for cancer staging. Electrical tests on the readout electronics are performed and intrinsic scintillation camera performance is evaluated using a 23 /spl times/ 23 array of pixilated 2 /spl times/ 2 /spl times/ 3 mm/sup 3/ LSO crystals coupled to a H8500 flat-panel PSPMT.