Effects of Quantization of Time-of-Flight (TOF) Measurements on Image Signal-to-Noise Ratio in TOF Emission Tomography

An effort to predict the signal-to-noise ratio performance in positron-emission tomography as a function of the number of levels used in quantizing the time-of-flight measurement has been undertaken. Conditions are identified under which the time-of-flight measurement and the error due to quantization are virtually uncorrelated. A simulation of time-of-flight tomography is undertaken to check the mathematical approximations of the analytical approach.