A new clamp amplifier suitable for PET scanner’s front-end electronics based on integrated circuit

We have proposed a new architecture of the clamp amplifier that is one of the important components of analog front-end ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) for high-resolution PET (positron emission tomography) scanner’s data acquisition system. It consists of a comparing and switching block, an offset correction block, and an operational amplifier. The proposed technique enables us to fabricate high speed and small size clamp amplifier in the standard semiconductor process. Using this amplifier, the high-performance front-end ASIC can be achieved. We have evaluated the basic characteristics of the proposed clamp amplifier by the commercial components based test circuit, and have confirmed that it has excellent performance as a clamp amplifier.