Flexible Printed Circuit Board Design for the Development of Scalable PET Imaging Instruments. Tabitha Gwaltney (Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA 23230) Cameron Clarke (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606)

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a key technique used for cancer imaging. PET is the process where a radioisotope is coupled with a tagger molecule, injected into a patient emitting positrons, quickly interacting with electrons, and annihilating. Development of this modality at Jefferson Lab utilizes a Streaming Readout (SRO) Data Acquisition (DAQ) system that streams the data produced by PET detectors to data interpretation systems. These detectors comprise two modules consisting of board stackups, including LEMO (derived from the founder's name, Léon Mouttet) connector boards, or exchangeable flexible printed circuit boards (flex PCB). Efficiency and compartmentalization of these detectors are features targeted for further development by the Radiation Detection & Imaging group at Jefferson Lab, motivating front-end detector re-designing. One objective of this project is to design a flex PCB that connects the current photodetector to the new front-end board (FEB). Another objective is to evaluate the detectors' signals with the LEMO board, producing reference data to validate the new system. Using the software Altium Designer, specifications such as the board's geometry, layer stackup, component placement, routing, and bend radius were configured appropriately. Afterwards, the LEMO board was wired into the PET black box system then connected to an oscilloscope and NIM bim to record coincident signals. Similar action will be taken afterwards with the flex PCB after fabrication. The SRO PET DAQ system successfully registered basic signals and coincident events, proving the functionality of modular SRO PET DAQ detector systems. This instrument could then be utilized for other medical applications such as total body PET.