Performance evaluation of the microPET-Focus - F120

MicroPET-Focus-F120 is the latest model of dedicated small animal PET scanners from CTI-Concorde Microsystems LLC, (Knoxville, TN). This scanner, based on the geometry of the microPET-R4, takes advantage of several system design changes and modifications to the coincidence processing electronics that improve the image resolution, sensitivity, and counting rate performance as compared to the predecessor models. This work evaluates the performance of the Focus-F120 system and shows its improvement over the earlier models. In particular, the spatial resolution has been shown to improve from 2.20 to 1.75 mm at 0.5mm radial distance, the peak absolute sensitivity to increase from 4.1% to 7.1% in comparison to the microPET-R4. The counting rate capability, expressed in NECR, was shown to peak at over 800 kcps at 88 MBq, while the microPET-R4 peak is reached at 167 MBq, in a mouse phantom. For this small phantom, the NECR counting rate is limited by the data transmission bandwidth between the scanner and the acquisition console. Evaluation of image quality and quantitation accuracy was also performed using specially designed phantoms and animal experiments