Calibration and performances of a multichannel DAQ system for Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) matrices in PET applications

The use of large area multipixel Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) detectors requires the development of a multichannel Digital Acquisition system (DAQ). At the University of Pisa and INFN Pisa we constructed a DAQ board for the read-out of 2 16-pixel SiPM matrices in time coincidence for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) applications. Our goal is the assessment of a small animal PET prototype consisting of two detector heads based on LYSO continuous crystal read by SiPM matrices. The proof of principle is based on 16 pixel detectors, but the whole system has been conceived to be easily scalable to a higher number of channels. Here we present the full characterization of the electronics and first measurements with the two detector heads.