Performance Evaluation of the SiPM-based Siemens Biograph Vision PET/CT System

The Siemens Biograph Vision PET/CT is a SiPM-based scanner composed of detector blocks consisting of 5x5 arrays of 3.2x3.2x20mm
³
LSO crystals coupled to a 4x4 SiPM array. The axial FOV is 26.3 cm with 8 rows of detector blocks in each module and 19 modules in the ring. Measurements on the production system recently installed at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrate significant improvement in the TOF resolution over previously reported measurements made on prototype systems, and range from 210 ps FWHM at an effective average radioactivity concentration of 5.3 kBq/cc to 215 ps FWHM at peak NECR (30.9 kBq/cc). There is only a 2.0% degradation in timing resolution over the clinically relevant activity concentration range. Contrast recovery coefficients measured using the IQ phantom filled according to the reconstruction harmonization initiative ranged from 39.9% for a 10-mm diameter sphere up to 85.3% for a 37-mm diameter sphere, with OP-OSEM reconstruction using TOF+PSF with 4 iterations and 5 subsets and a 5 mm FWHM Gaussian postfilter. Scans of other contrast phantoms, including the ACR PET and SNMMI CTN oncology phantoms demonstrated improved lesion detectability compared to a 4-ring Biograph mCT, using clinically relevant reconstruction parameters. In this paper we present a detailed report of the performance measurements from the production model Biograph Vision PET/CT installed at the University of Pennsylvania in September-October 2018.