Scintillation pulse digitization method and device, storage medium, computer program product and radiation detection system

Abstract

The invention discloses a scintillation pulse digitization method and device, a storage medium, a computer program product and a radiation detection system. The method comprises the following steps: collecting scintillation pulses output by a scintillation detector to be detected to obtain a plurality of target sampling points; fitting the target sampling points corresponding to the scintillation pulses by adopting a modeling function to obtain a first parameter point to an nth parameter point, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and determining a first calibration parameter point corresponding to the to-be-detected scintillation detector according to the first parameter point corresponding to the at least part of scintillation pulses, and executing the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter point. According to the method, the fitting process can be greatly simplified, and the fitting speed is increased.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of data processing, and in particular to methods, apparatus, storage media, computer program products, and radiation detection systems for digitizing scintillation pulses. Background Technology

[0002] In the field of high-energy particle detection, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and radiation detection, the multiple voltage threshold (MVT) method is widely used as a simple, efficient, and easily scalable method for digitizing scintillation pulses. Unlike traditional equal-interval sampling methods, the MVT method uses a comparator and a time-to-digital converter (TDC) to obtain the timestamps of the scintillation pulse passing through several pre-set voltage thresholds. Combined with a prior model of the scintillation pulse, these obtained time-threshold pairs are fitted to reconstruct the scintillation pulse waveform, thereby obtaining the corresponding time, energy, and position information.

[0003] In practical scintillation detectors, scintillation pulse waveforms can typically be modeled as single-exponential, double-exponential, or multi-exponential functions. Taking the double-exponential function as an example, its expression is: Where v is the voltage of the scintillation pulse, t0 is the arrival time of the scintillation pulse, r1 and r2 are both related to the time constants of the scintillation crystal and the optoelectronic device, and can generally be directly referred to as time constants. A is a parameter related to the deposition energy of the incident gamma photons, the light output of the scintillation crystal, and the gain of the SiPM. During the fitting process, a nonlinear least squares method is used to fit the waveform by constructing an objective function. Because the double exponential model has many parameters and the objective function has high computational complexity, the fitting time is usually long, and it is easy to get trapped in local optima during the fitting process, resulting in low fitting accuracy. In some cases, the fitted r1 and r2 may even far exceed the range of actual physical possibilities.

[0004] Therefore, how to determine the parameters of the scintillation pulse waveform modeling function in advance in order to improve the performance of the scintillation pulse digitization process, simplify the calculation, and reduce the fitting time has become a technical problem that urgently needs to be solved by those skilled in the art. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Therefore, it is necessary to provide a method, apparatus, storage medium, computer program product, and radiation detection system for scintillation pulse digitization, addressing at least one technical problem existing in traditional solutions.

[0006] According to a first aspect of this application, a method for digitizing scintillation pulses is provided, comprising: acquiring scintillation pulses output by a scintillation detector under test to obtain a plurality of target sampling points; fitting the target sampling points using a modeling function to obtain a first parameter point to an nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; determining a first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on the first parameter points corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses; and performing the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter points.

[0007] According to one embodiment of this application, acquiring scintillation pulses output by a scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points includes: acquiring scintillation pulses output by a predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points.

[0008] According to one embodiment of this application, acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points includes: acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several first sampling points, and filtering the sampling points according to a preset rule to obtain several target sampling points.

[0009] According to one embodiment of this application, acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points includes: acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several sampling points, and selecting sampling points above the baseline as target sampling points.

[0010] According to one embodiment of this application, the scintillation detector under test includes a single-channel scintillation detector or a multi-channel scintillation detector.

[0011] According to one embodiment of this application, before acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, the method further includes: irradiating the scintillation detector under test with high-energy particles.

[0012] According to one embodiment of this application, acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test includes: acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using an equal time interval sampling method.

[0013] According to one embodiment of this application, acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test includes: acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using a multi-voltage threshold sampling method.

[0014] According to one embodiment of this application, the method of fitting the target sampling points with a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point includes: fitting the target sampling points corresponding to the flashing pulse with the same modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

[0015] According to one embodiment of this application, the target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, including: the same modeling function is used to fit the target sampling points corresponding to each flash pulse to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

[0016] According to one embodiment of this application, fitting the target sampling points with a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point includes: fitting the selected target sampling points with the same modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

[0017] According to one embodiment of this application, determining the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on a plurality of first parameter points includes: configuring weights for the plurality of first calibration parameter points and calculating the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

[0018] According to one embodiment of this application, determining the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on a plurality of first parameter points includes: taking the average value of the plurality of first parameter points to obtain the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

[0019] According to one embodiment of this application, the parameters include time constants in a single-exponential model, a double-exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model.

[0020] According to a second aspect of this application, an apparatus for digitizing scintillation pulses is provided, comprising: a data acquisition module configured to acquire scintillation pulses output by a scintillation detector under test to obtain a plurality of target sampling points; a fitting module configured to fit the target sampling points using a modeling function to obtain a first parameter point to an nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and a calibration module configured to determine a first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on the first parameter points corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses, and to perform the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain corresponding calibration parameter points.

[0021] According to one embodiment of this application, the data acquisition module is configured to acquire scintillation pulses output from a predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test, thereby obtaining several target sampling points.

[0022] According to one embodiment of this application, the scintillation detector under test includes a single-channel scintillation detector or a multi-channel scintillation detector.

[0023] According to one embodiment of this application, the apparatus further includes: a radiation source configured to illuminate the scintillation detector to be tested.

[0024] According to one embodiment of this application, the data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using an equal time interval sampling method.

[0025] According to one embodiment of this application, the data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using a multi-voltage threshold sampling method.

[0026] According to one embodiment of this application, the fitting module is configured to fit the target sampling points corresponding to the flashing pulses using the same modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

[0027] According to one embodiment of this application, the calibration module is configured to assign weights to several first calibration parameter points and calculate the first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

[0028] According to one embodiment of this application, the calibration module is configured to take the average value of a plurality of first parameter points to obtain the first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

[0029] According to one embodiment of this application, the data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, obtain a number of first sampling points, and filter the sampling points according to a preset rule to obtain a number of target sampling points.

[0030] According to one embodiment of this application, the data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, obtain several sampling points, and select the sampling points above the baseline as target sampling points.

[0031] According to one embodiment of this application, the parameters include time constants in a single-exponential model, a double-exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model.

[0032] According to a third aspect of this application, a computer storage medium is provided that stores a computer program thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method described in any of the above claims.

[0033] According to a fourth aspect of this application, a computer program product is provided, comprising a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the method described in any of the above-mentioned methods.

[0034] According to a fifth aspect of this application, a radiation detection system is provided, comprising the apparatus as described in any of the preceding claims.

[0035] The scintillation pulse digitization method, apparatus, storage medium, computer program product, and radiation detection system provided in this application, by pre-determining the parameters of the scintillation pulse modeling function, eliminate the need to consider the time constant in practical fitting applications; only the corresponding calibration parameter points need to be substituted. Taking the double exponential function and single exponential model as examples (other models are similar), only the objective function with two parameters, A and t0, needs to be determined. This improves the performance of scintillation pulse digitization, greatly simplifies the fitting process, and accelerates the fitting speed.

[0036] Furthermore, in the MVT and PP-MVT methods, threshold comparison and time sampling are generally implemented by setting up LVDS comparators and TDC on the FPGA, resulting in high FPGA resource consumption. The method in this application reduces the number of parameters to be determined, thus reducing the number of sampling points required. Ideally, only one sampling point needs to be obtained at each of the rising and falling edges of the flash pulse to obtain a numerical solution. Therefore, the number of voltage thresholds required during sampling is correspondingly reduced; ideally, only one voltage threshold is needed. This significantly reduces FPGA resource consumption, representing a major breakthrough in program simplification, and will greatly reduce the amount of data processing in subsequent processes, resulting in a rapid increase in processing speed. Attached Figure Description

[0037] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or prior art of this specification, the accompanying drawings used in the description of the embodiments or prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are merely some embodiments recorded in this specification. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without any creative effort.

[0038] Figure 1 This is a flowchart illustrating a method for digitizing scintillation pulses in one embodiment of this application;

[0039] Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating a method for digitizing scintillation pulses in another embodiment of this application;

[0040] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a device for digitizing flash pulses in one embodiment of this application;

[0041] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a device for digitizing flash pulses in another embodiment of this application;

[0042] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a scintillation pulse digitization system for implementing a scintillation pulse digitization method in one embodiment of this application;

[0043] Figure 6 This is an internal structural diagram of a computer device in one embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0044] To make the above-mentioned objectives, features, and advantages of this application more readily understood, the specific embodiments of this application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of this application. However, this application can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar modifications without departing from the spirit of this application. Therefore, this application is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0045] It should be noted that when an element is said to be "fixed to" another element, it can be directly fixed to the other element or there may be an intervening element. When an element is said to be "connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or there may be an intervening element. The terms "substantially equal" or "substantially equal to" as used herein mean that the difference between the two lies within a range of errors considered equivalent in the art. The terms "vertical," "horizontal," "left," "right," and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only.

[0046] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of this application. The terms “and / or” or “and / or” as used herein include any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0047] In view of the technical problems existing in the prior art, this application proposes a method, apparatus and supporting application for scintillation pulse digitization that can at least improve the fitting speed.

[0048] In some embodiments, the method for digitizing scintillation pulses can be executed by a device for digitizing scintillation pulses. For example, the method for digitizing scintillation pulses can be partially or wholly stored in a storage device (such as the built-in storage module of the detection device or an external storage device) in the form of a program or instructions, which, when executed, can implement the method for digitizing scintillation pulses. The device disclosed in this application for implementing the above-described method for digitizing scintillation pulses can be a device with abundant computing resources (e.g., a computer, server, cloud computing, etc.) or a device with limited computing resources (e.g., a hardware circuit such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip board or an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) chip board).

[0049] The following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrates some preferred embodiments of the present application. It should be noted that the following description is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application.

[0050] Figure 1 This is a flowchart illustrating a method for digitizing scintillation pulses in one embodiment of the present application. In one embodiment, the method for digitizing scintillation pulses may include the following steps S200 to S400.

[0051] S200: Collects the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points.

[0052] S300: The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0053] S400: Determine the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on several first parameter points corresponding to the scintillation pulse, and perform the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter points.

[0054] Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating a method for digitizing scintillation pulses in one embodiment of this application. In one embodiment, the method for digitizing scintillation pulses may include the following step S100. Thus, steps S100-S400 constitute another new embodiment where at least some steps can be processed collaboratively by a computer or different computer software. Since steps S200-S400 in these two embodiments are essentially the same, the following will be combined with... Figure 1 and Figure 2 The related content is combined and described.

[0055] S100: High-energy particles are used to irradiate the scintillation detector under test.

[0056] The high-energy particles used can be selected based on the high-energy particles that the scintillation detector under test is likely to encounter or primarily detect. For example, in PET detection, the primary high-energy particle detected is gamma photon, while in well logging, the primary high-energy particles detected include neutrons and gamma photons. In one example, the high-energy particles used are from... 22 Na can emit gamma photons with energies of 511 keEV and 1274 keEV.

[0057] S200: Collects the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points.

[0058] In this embodiment, the scintillation detector comprises a scintillation crystal and a photomultiplier device. The scintillation crystal can be an inorganic scintillation crystal such as LYSO, LSO, YSO, NaI, or CsI, or an organic scintillation crystal; the photomultiplier device can be a silicon photomultiplier tube (SiPM), an avalanche photodiode (APD), a photomultiplier tube (PMT), or others. Generally, a protective layer is wrapped around the scintillation crystal for light shielding and surface protection; an optical adhesive is placed between the scintillation crystal and the photomultiplier device to prevent incomplete coupling between them.

[0059] In this embodiment, during the detection of high-energy particles, such as gamma photons, by the scintillation detector, the high-energy particles are deposited in the scintillation crystal, which generates visible photons. These visible photons are collected by a photoelectric conversion device (such as a SiPM), which includes several single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). The current generated by the SPADs converges into a scintillation pulse. The scintillation pulse acquisition method can employ an equal-time-interval sampling method or a multi-voltage threshold sampling method to obtain several target sampling points. The equal-time-interval sampling method can use a high-speed oscilloscope, DRS chip, ADC board, etc., to perform the sampling. Preferably, a high-speed oscilloscope is used. The high-speed oscilloscope is triggered at the rising edge of the scintillation pulse. The trigger voltage can be set as needed, for example, 100mV, and the interval can also be set as needed, for example, 20ps. The multi-voltage threshold sampling method compares a flicker pulse with preset voltage thresholds using a comparator. When the amplitude of the flicker pulse exceeds a voltage threshold, a transition signal is output. A time-to-digital converter (TDC) acquires and records the transition time based on the transition signal, thus obtaining time information at multiple voltage thresholds to sample the flicker pulse. Assuming four voltage thresholds are set, if a flicker pulse triggers all voltage thresholds, four voltage-time pairs (Vf, Vc, Vd, Vf, Vd ... i , t i ), (vi , t i ) is the target sampling point.

[0060] To make the obtained parameters more representative, this application mainly acquires the scintillation pulses output from the standard channel of the scintillation detector under test. Exemplarily, step S200 includes: acquiring the scintillation pulses output from a predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points. In one example, the predetermined channel can be a standard channel. Taking a SiPM scintillation detector as an example, the output of its standard channel is generally referred to as the standard output. The standard output of a SiPM, also known as the slow output, is the sum of signals from all micro-units of the SiPM device. This signal reflects the total luminous flux incident on the entire photosensitive surface of the SiPM. Its characteristics include a slow pulse rise time and a wide pulse width. The amount of charge it carries is proportional to the number of triggered micro-units, and it is often used for energy measurement. The fast output of a SiPM, on the other hand, is a signal designed specifically for precise time measurement. It is typically extracted through a separate, low-capacitance pin and directly coupled to the anode of the micro-unit. This signal is characterized by an extremely fast rise time and a very narrow pulse width. Although its amplitude may be small, its steep rise edge provides an excellent time marker for determining photon arrival time and is often used for time measurement. Therefore, in one example, the predetermined channel can also be a fast channel.

[0061] It should be noted that scintillation detectors generally include one or more channels, and the characteristics of these channels are usually different. To simplify the data acquisition process and reduce interference, in this embodiment, a single-channel scintillation detector is used to detect and output scintillation pulses, or a single channel of a multi-channel scintillation detector is used to detect and output scintillation pulses. For multi-channel scintillation detectors, each channel can be calibrated in stages according to the number of channels required for calibration. After obtaining calibration parameters using a single-channel scintillation detector, the calibration parameters can be generalized to scintillation detectors of the same model as the single-channel scintillation detector; after obtaining calibration parameters using a single channel of a multi-channel scintillation detector, the calibration parameters can be generalized to the corresponding channels of scintillation detectors of the same model as the multi-channel scintillation detector.

[0062] It is important to note that before the scintillation pulse arrives, the output signal of the scintillation detector already contains certain values. These values ​​are not generated by high-energy particle irradiation but are influenced by electronic noise and bias, and therefore need to be discarded. Furthermore, the sampling points need to be screened. Preset rules can be set based on experience to screen the sampling points and obtain target sampling points. For example, sampling points above the baseline are selected as target sampling points, where the baseline corresponds to the voltage of the sampling point. As an example, and not a limitation, the baseline is any value between 10 and 100 millivolts; that is, sampling points with voltages greater than the aforementioned value are selected as target sampling points.

[0063] S300: The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0064] The number of parameter points is determined based on the parameter points included in the modeling function used for fitting. In this embodiment, the modeling function can be the time constant in a single-exponential model, a double-exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model. Parameter points can be obtained for all these modeling functions. In practical applications, the required modeling function can be selected as needed. In some application scenarios, a modeling function with better performance may be preferred. Taking the double-exponential model as an example... Where v represents the voltage of the scintillation pulse, t represents the time corresponding to the voltage, t0 represents the arrival time of the scintillation pulse, A represents a parameter related to the photon deposition energy, the light output of the scintillation crystal, and the gain of the optoelectronic device, and r1 and r2 represent time constants. Generally, r1 and r2 are related to the inherent properties of the scintillation crystal and the optoelectronic conversion device. For a scintillation detector with certain performance, it exhibits stable characteristics under normal operating conditions, and r1 and r2 can be considered as inherent parameters. Therefore, when the modeling function is a double exponential model, the two parameter points can be determined in advance.

[0065] As an example, and not a limitation, this application is described in detail using a scintillation detector comprising LYSO and SiPM for PET applications. In this scintillation detector, the LYSO has dimensions of 3.9 mm × 3.9 mm × 20 mm, and the photosensitive area of ​​the SiPM is 3.93 mm × 3.93 mm. Optical adhesive is placed between the LYSO and SiPM to avoid incomplete coupling. The surface of the LYSO is coated with a thin layer of BaSO4 and then sealed with black silicone sealant for light shielding and surface protection. The radiation source used is a light source with a diameter of approximately 0.3 mm and an activity of 10 μCi. 22 A Na (also denoted as sodium-22) radiation source, attached to the light-receiving surface of LYSO via adhesive, emits gamma photons with energies of 511 kiloelectron volts and 1274 kiloelectron volts. Scintillation pulses were sampled using an oscilloscope with a sampling rate of 50 GSps, an analog bandwidth of 16 GHz, a trigger voltage of 100 mV, and a time interval of 20 ps. Exemplarily, a double exponential model was used for modeling, fitted using the least squares method to obtain the optimal parameters (A′, r) for each scintillation pulse. ′ 1. r ′ 2. t ′ 0), parameter point r ′ 1 is defined as the first parameter point, r ′ 2 is defined as the second parameter point.

[0066] As an example, and not a limitation, this application will be described in detail using a scintillation detector comprising LaBr3 (or NaI) and PMT as an example for a well logging application scenario. The size of the LaBr3 (or NaI) in this scintillation detector can be the same as or approximately the same as LYSO in the aforementioned PET application scenario, and the photosensitive area of ​​the PMT can be the same as or approximately the same as LYSO in the aforementioned PET application scenario. An optical adhesive is placed between the LaBr3 (or NaI) and the PMT to avoid incomplete coupling. The optical adhesive used has a refractive index of 1.6800 at 589.3 nm and 25°C. The surface of the LaBr3 (or NaI) is coated with a thin layer of BaSO4 and then sealed with black silicone sealant for light shielding and surface protection. The radiation source used is... 203 Hg or 141 Ce or 124 Sb is attached to the light-receiving surface of LaBr3 (or NaI) using adhesive. Scintillation pulses are sampled using an oscilloscope with an equal time interval method. The oscilloscope's sampling rate is 50 GSps, analog bandwidth is 16 GHz, trigger voltage is 100 mV, and time interval is 20 ps. For example, the modeling function uses a single exponential model, whose expression can be represented as: Where v represents the voltage of the scintillation pulse, t represents the time corresponding to the voltage, t0 represents the arrival time of the scintillation pulse, A represents parameters related to the photon deposition energy, the light output of the scintillation crystal, and the gain of the optoelectronic device, and r represents the time constant. Fitting can obtain the optimal parameters (A′, r′, t) for each scintillation pulse. ′ 0), r′ is defined as the first parameter point.

[0067] Preferably, in one example of this application, the same modeling function can be used to fit the target sampling points corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses obtained in a single acquisition, to ensure the consistency of the results. Alternatively, the same modeling function can be used to fit the target sampling points corresponding to each scintillation pulse obtained in a single acquisition, to ensure the consistency of the results.

[0068] As an example, and not a limitation, the target sampling points corresponding to at least a portion of the flash pulses obtained in a single acquisition can be screened first. Based on experience or a preset algorithm, obviously abnormal target sampling points can be removed. For the remaining preferred target sampling points, the same modeling function can be used for fitting to ensure the accuracy of the results.

[0069] S400: Determine the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on several first parameter points corresponding to the scintillation pulse, and perform the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter points.

[0070] The phrase "perform the same operation on the remaining parameter points as on the first parameter point to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter points" can be understood as follows: for example, when there are three parameter points, after calibrating the first parameter point, the second and third parameter points are the remaining parameter points. "Perform the same operation on the remaining parameter points as on the first parameter point" includes determining the second calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on several second parameter points corresponding to the scintillation pulse, and determining the third calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on several third parameter points corresponding to the scintillation pulse.

[0071] Specifically, after step S300, each scintillation pulse corresponds to a first parameter point to an nth parameter point. Several scintillation pulses are acquired in a single acquisition, resulting in several first parameter points to several nth parameter points. Theoretically, the distribution of each parameter point should be a Gaussian distribution. When it conforms to a Gaussian distribution, the average of all first parameter points can be taken to obtain the first calibration parameter point. When it does not conform to a Gaussian distribution, all first parameter points can be assigned the same, different, or not entirely the same weight to obtain the first calibration parameter point. It is understandable that other parameter points can be processed in the same way as the first parameter points to obtain their corresponding calibration parameter points. In actual fitting, the calibration parameter points can be directly substituted into the objective function.

[0072] Taking the double exponential function as an example, the objective function fitted by the existing MVT method is:

[0073]

[0074] Among them, L(A) ′ r ′ 1. r ′ 2. t ′ 0) represents the numerical solution, A ′ It is a parameter related to the deposition energy of photons, the light output of the scintillation crystal, and the gain of optoelectronic devices, t ′ 0 represents the photon arrival time, r ′ 1. r ′ 2 represents the time constant, i represents the i-th sampling point, and t i v represents the time contained in the i-th sampling point. i The voltage contained in the i-th sampling point;

[0075] The objective function fitted by the existing PP-MVT method is:

[0076]

[0077] The same letters have the same meaning as those in the objective function fitted by the MVT method described above, t p v represents the peak time of the flash pulse. pThis represents the peak voltage of the flash pulse.

[0078] After determining the time constant using the scintillation pulse digitization method provided in this application, the objective function fitted by the MVT method is:

[0079]

[0080] The objective function fitted by the PP-MVT method is:

[0081]

[0082] It can be observed that, regardless of whether it is the MVT method or the PP-MVT method, only A needs to be considered in the fitted objective function. ′ and t ′ Two parameters. For other modeling functions, those skilled in the art, based on the example of the double exponential function described above, can foresee that other modeling functions can also reduce the number of parameters that need to be determined in the actual fitted target function, in the same or similar way as the double exponential function described above.

[0083] Therefore, the scintillation pulse digitization method provided in this application eliminates the need to consider the time constant in practical fitting applications; only the corresponding calibration parameter points need to be substituted. Taking the double exponential function and single exponential model as examples (other models are similar), only the objective function with two parameters, A and t0, needs to be determined. This improves the performance of scintillation pulse digitization, greatly simplifies the fitting process, and accelerates the fitting speed.

[0084] Furthermore, because the number of parameters to be determined is reduced, the number of voltage thresholds required in the MVT and PP-MVT methods can also be reduced accordingly. Ideally, only one voltage threshold needs to be sampled at each of the rising and falling edges of the scintillation pulse to obtain a numerical solution. Since the MVT and PP-MVT methods typically implement this by setting up LVDS comparators and TDC on the FPGA, with the two inputs of the LVDS comparator connected to the scintillation pulse and the threshold voltage respectively, the number of LVDS comparators is usually the same as the number of threshold voltages. Therefore, compared with existing technologies, reducing the number of voltage thresholds will reduce FPGA resource consumption, bringing a significant breakthrough in program simplification, and greatly reducing the amount of data processing in subsequent processes, resulting in a rapid increase in processing speed.

[0085] Based on the description of the above-described method embodiments for digitizing scintillation pulses, this application also provides an apparatus for digitizing scintillation pulses. The apparatus may include devices (including distributed systems), software (applications), modules, components, servers, clients, etc., using the methods described in the embodiments of this specification, combined with necessary hardware implementations. Based on the same inventive concept, the apparatuses in one or more embodiments provided in this application are as described in the following embodiments. Since the implementation schemes and methods for solving the problem by the apparatus are similar, the implementation of specific apparatuses in the embodiments of this specification can refer to the implementation of the foregoing methods, and repeated details will not be repeated. As used below, the terms "module" or "module group" can refer to a combination of software and / or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the apparatuses described in the following embodiments are preferably implemented in software, hardware implementations, or a combination of software and hardware, are also possible.

[0086] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a scintillation pulse digitization device according to one embodiment of the present application. In one embodiment, the scintillation pulse digitization device 300 may include a data acquisition module 320, a fitting module 330, and a calibration module 340. In optional embodiments, see [link to optional embodiment]. Figure 4 The device 300 may also include a source 310.

[0087] Specifically, the source 310 is configured to emit high-energy particles to irradiate the scintillation detector under test. Different sources can be selected based on the high-energy particles that the scintillation detector under test may encounter or primarily detect in actual use. For example, in PET detection, the primary high-energy particles detected are gamma photons, while in well logging, the primary high-energy particles detected include neutrons and gamma photons. In one example, the high-energy particles used are from... 22 Na can emit gamma photons with energies of 511 keEV and 1274 keEV.

[0088] Specifically, the data acquisition module 320 is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points.

[0089] In this embodiment, the scintillation detector comprises a scintillation crystal and a photomultiplier device. The scintillation crystal can be an inorganic scintillation crystal such as LYSO, LSO, YSO, NaI, or CsI, or an organic scintillation crystal; the photomultiplier device can be a silicon photomultiplier tube (SiPM), an avalanche photodiode (APD), a photomultiplier tube (PMT), or others. Generally, a protective layer is wrapped around the scintillation crystal for light shielding and surface protection; an optical adhesive is placed between the scintillation crystal and the photomultiplier device to prevent incomplete coupling between them.

[0090] In this embodiment, during the detection of high-energy particles, such as gamma photons, by the scintillation detector, the high-energy particles are deposited in the scintillation crystal, which generates visible photons. These visible photons are collected by a photoelectric conversion device (such as a SiPM), which includes several single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). The current generated by the SPADs converges into a scintillation pulse. For the acquisition of the scintillation pulse, an equal-time-interval sampling method or a multi-voltage threshold sampling method can be used to obtain several target sampling points. The equal-time-interval sampling method can use a high-speed oscilloscope, DRS chip, ADC board, etc., to perform the sampling work. Preferably, a high-speed oscilloscope is used. The oscilloscope is set to be triggered at the rising edge of the scintillation pulse. The trigger voltage can be set as needed, for example, 100mV, and the interval time can also be set as needed, for example, 20ps. The multi-voltage threshold sampling method compares the scintillation pulse with multiple voltage thresholds using a comparator. When the amplitude of the scintillation pulse exceeds a voltage threshold, a transition signal is output. A time-to-digital converter (TDC) obtains and records the transition time based on the transition signal to obtain time information at multiple voltage thresholds, thus achieving scintillation pulse sampling. Assuming four voltage thresholds are set, if a flash pulse triggers all voltage thresholds, four voltage-time pairs (v) are obtained at both the rising and falling edges of the flash pulse. i , t i ), (v i , t i ) is the target sampling point.

[0091] To make the obtained parameters more typical, this application mainly acquires the scintillation pulses output from the standard channel of the scintillation detector under test. Exemplarily, the data acquisition module 320 is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output from a predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test, obtaining several target sampling points. In one example, the predetermined channel can be a standard channel. Taking a SiPM scintillation detector as an example, the output of its standard channel is generally referred to as the standard output. The standard output of a SiPM, also known as the slow output, is the sum of the signals of all micro-units in the SiPM device. This signal reflects the total luminous flux incident on the entire photosensitive surface of the SiPM. Its characteristics include a slow pulse rise time and a wide pulse width. The amount of charge it carries is proportional to the number of triggered micro-units, and it is often used for energy measurement. The fast output of a SiPM, on the other hand, is a signal designed specifically for precise time measurement. It is typically extracted through a separate, low-capacitance pin and directly coupled to the anode of the micro-unit. This signal is characterized by an extremely fast rise time and a very narrow pulse width. Although its amplitude may be small, its steep rising edge provides an excellent time marker for determining the arrival time of photons and is often used for time measurement. Therefore, in one example, the predetermined channel can also be a fast channel.

[0092] It should be noted that scintillation detectors generally include one or more channels, and the characteristics of these channels are usually different. To simplify the data acquisition process and reduce interference, in this embodiment, a single-channel scintillation detector is used to detect and output scintillation pulses, or a single channel of a multi-channel scintillation detector is used to detect and output scintillation pulses. For multi-channel scintillation detectors, each channel can be calibrated in stages according to the number of channels required for calibration. After obtaining calibration parameters using a single-channel scintillation detector, the calibration parameters can be generalized to scintillation detectors of the same model as the single-channel scintillation detector; after obtaining calibration parameters using a single channel of a multi-channel scintillation detector, the calibration parameters can be generalized to the corresponding channels of scintillation detectors of the same model as the multi-channel scintillation detector.

[0093] It is important to note that before the scintillation pulse arrives, the output signal of the scintillation detector already contains certain values. These values ​​are not generated by high-energy particle irradiation but are influenced by electronic noise and bias, and therefore need to be discarded. Furthermore, the sampling points need to be screened. Preset rules can be set based on experience to screen the sampling points to obtain target sampling points. For example, the data acquisition module 320 is configured to select sampling points above a baseline as target sampling points, where the baseline corresponds to the voltage of the sampling point. As an example, and not a limitation, the baseline is any value between 10 and 100 millivolts; that is, sampling points with voltages greater than the aforementioned value are selected as target sampling points.

[0094] Specifically, the fitting module 330 is configured to use a modeling function to fit the target sampling points to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1. More specifically, the fitting module 330 is configured to use a modeling function to fit the target sampling points corresponding to each flashing pulse to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point. The number of parameter points is determined based on the parameter points included in the modeling function used for fitting. In this embodiment, the modeling function can be the time constant in a single exponential model, a double exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model; parameter points can be obtained for all these modeling functions. In practical applications, the required modeling function can be selected as needed. In some application scenarios, a modeling function with better performance may be preferred. Taking the double exponential model as an example... Where v represents the voltage of the scintillation pulse, t represents the time corresponding to the voltage, t0 represents the arrival time of the scintillation pulse, A represents a parameter related to the photon deposition energy, the light output of the scintillation crystal, and the gain of the optoelectronic device, and r1 and r2 represent time constants. Generally, r1 and r2 are related to the inherent properties of the scintillation crystal and the optoelectronic conversion device. For a scintillation detector with certain performance, it exhibits stable characteristics under normal operating conditions, and r1 and r2 can be considered as inherent parameters. Therefore, when the modeling function is a double exponential model, the two parameter points can be determined in advance.

[0095] As an example, and not a limitation, this application is described in detail using a scintillation detector comprising LYSO and SiPM for a PET application. In this scintillation detector, the LYSO has dimensions of 3.9 mm × 3.9 mm × 20 mm, and the photosensitive area of ​​the SiPM is 3.93 mm × 3.93 mm. Optical adhesive is placed between the LYSO and SiPM to avoid incomplete coupling. The surface of the LYSO is coated with a thin layer of BaSO4 and then sealed with black silicone sealant for light shielding and surface protection. The radiation source used is a light source with a diameter of approximately 0.3 mm and an activity of 10 μCi. 22 A Na radiation source, attached to the light-receiving surface of the LYSO via adhesive, emits gamma photons with energies of 511 keEV and 1274 keEV. Scintillation pulses were sampled using an oscilloscope with a sampling rate of 50 GSps, an analog bandwidth of 16 GHz, a trigger voltage of 100 mV, and a time interval of 20 ps. Exemplarily, a double exponential model was used for modeling, and the optimal parameters (A′, r) for each scintillation pulse were obtained by fitting the model using the least squares method. ′ 1. r ′ 2. t ′ 0), parameter point r ′ 1 is defined as the first parameter point, r ′ 2 is defined as the second parameter point.

[0096] As an example, and not a limitation, this application will be described in detail using a scintillation detector comprising LaBr3 (or NaI) and PMT for a well logging application scenario. The size of the LaBr3 (or NaI) in this scintillation detector can be the same as or approximately the same as LYSO in the aforementioned PET application scenario, and the photosensitive area of ​​the PMT can be the same as or approximately the same as LYSO in the aforementioned PET application scenario. An optical adhesive is placed between the LaBr3 (or NaI) and the PMT to avoid incomplete coupling. The surface of the LaBr3 (or NaI) is coated with a thin layer of BaSO4 and then sealed with black silicone sealant for light shielding and surface protection. The radiation source used is... 203 Hg or 141 Ce or124 Sb is attached to the light-receiving surface of LaBr3 (or NaI) using adhesive. Scintillation pulses are sampled using an oscilloscope with an equal time interval method. The oscilloscope's sampling rate is 50 GSps, analog bandwidth is 16 GHz, trigger voltage is 100 mV, and time interval is 20 ps. Exemplarily, the modeling function uses a single exponential model as described in the method embodiments section, and fitting yields the optimal parameters (A′, r′, t) for each scintillation pulse. ′ 0), the parameter point r′ is defined as the first parameter point.

[0097] Preferably, in one example of this application, the same modeling function is used to fit at least a portion of the target sampling points corresponding to the flash pulses obtained in a single acquisition, so as to ensure the consistency of the results.

[0098] Specifically, the calibration module 340 is configured to determine the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on the first parameter point corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses, and perform the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter point.

[0099] Specifically, after processing by the fitting module 330, each flicker pulse corresponds to a first parameter point to an nth parameter point. During a single acquisition, several flicker pulses are obtained, resulting in several first parameter points to several nth parameter points. Theoretically, the distribution of each parameter point should be a Gaussian distribution. When it conforms to a Gaussian distribution, the average of all first parameter points can be taken to obtain the first calibration parameter point. When it does not conform to a Gaussian distribution, all first parameter points can be assigned the same or different weights to obtain the first calibration parameter point. It is understandable that other parameter points can be processed in the same way as the first parameter points to obtain their corresponding calibration parameter points.

[0100] The scintillation pulse digitization device provided in this application eliminates the need to consider the time constant in practical fitting applications; only the corresponding calibration parameter points need to be substituted. Taking the double exponential function and single exponential model as examples (other models are similar), only the objective function with two parameters, A and t0, needs to be determined. This improves the performance of scintillation pulse digitization, greatly simplifies the fitting process, and accelerates the fitting speed.

[0101] Furthermore, because the number of parameters to be determined is reduced, the number of voltage thresholds required in the MVT and PP-MVT methods can also be reduced accordingly. Ideally, only one voltage threshold needs to be sampled at each of the rising and falling edges of the scintillation pulse to obtain a numerical solution. Since the MVT and PP-MVT methods typically implement this by setting up LVDS comparators and TDC on the FPGA, with the two inputs of the LVDS comparator connected to the scintillation pulse and the threshold voltage respectively, the number of LVDS comparators is usually the same as the number of threshold voltages. Therefore, compared with existing technologies, reducing the number of voltage thresholds will reduce FPGA resource consumption, bringing a significant breakthrough in program simplification, and greatly reducing the amount of data processing in subsequent processes, resulting in a rapid increase in processing speed.

[0102] It should be understood that Figures 3-4 The apparatus and modules shown can be implemented in various ways. For example, in some embodiments, the apparatus and modules can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both. The hardware portion can be implemented using dedicated logic; the software portion can be stored in memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution device, such as a microprocessor or dedicated-design hardware. Those skilled in the art will understand that the methods and apparatus described above can be implemented using computer-executable instructions and / or included in processor control code, for example, such code provided on a carrier medium such as a disk, CD, or DVD-ROM, a programmable memory such as read-only memory (firmware), or a data carrier such as an optical or electronic signal carrier. The apparatus and modules described in this application can be implemented not only with hardware circuits such as very large-scale integrated circuits or gate arrays, semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or programmable hardware devices such as field-programmable gate arrays, programmable logic devices, etc., but also with software, for example, executed by various types of processors, or with a combination of the aforementioned hardware circuits and software (e.g., firmware).

[0103] It should be noted that the above description of the modules is for convenience only and should not be construed as limiting this specification to the embodiments described. It is understood that those skilled in the art, after understanding the principle of the device, may arbitrarily combine the modules or construct subsystems connected to other modules without departing from this principle. For example, the modules may share a single storage module, or each module may have its own separate storage module. Such modifications are all within the scope of this specification.

[0104] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of a system for scintillation pulse digitization, used in one embodiment of this application for implementing scintillation pulse digitization. (Refer to...) Figure 5The scintillation pulse digitization system S00 may include a processing component S20, which further includes one or more processors, and memory resources represented by a memory S22 for storing instructions, such as application programs, that can be executed by the processors of the processing component S20. The application programs stored in the memory S22 may include one or more instructions, with each module corresponding to a set of instructions. Furthermore, the processing component S20 is configured to execute instructions to perform the aforementioned scintillation pulse digitization method.

[0105] The operations and / or methods described in the embodiments of this specification, implemented by a single processor, may also be implemented jointly or independently by multiple processors. For example, if, in this application specification, the processor of the processing device executes steps S200 to S400, it should be understood that steps S200 to S400 may also be executed jointly or independently by two different processors of the processing device (e.g., the first processor executes step S200, the second processor executes steps S300 to S400, or the first and second processors jointly execute steps S200 to S400).

[0106] The flash pulse digitization system S00 may further include: a power supply component S24 configured to perform power management of the signal digitization system S00; a wired or wireless network interface S26 configured to connect the signal digitization system S00 to a network; and an input / output (I / O) interface S28. The signal digitization system S00 can operate on an operating system stored in memory S22, such as Windows Server, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, or similar.

[0107] In an exemplary embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium including instructions is also provided, such as a memory S22 including instructions, which can be executed by the processor of the scintillation pulse digitization system S00 to perform the above method. The storage medium may be a computer-readable storage medium, such as a ROM, random access memory (RAM), CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, and optical data storage device.

[0108] In an exemplary embodiment, a computer program product is also provided, the computer program product including instructions that can be executed by a processor of a scintillation pulse digitization system S00 to perform the above method.

[0109] In one embodiment, a computer device is provided, which may be a server, and its internal structure diagram may be as follows: Figure 6 As shown, Figure 6This is an internal structural diagram of a computer device according to one embodiment of this application. The computer device includes a processor, memory, and a network interface connected via a system bus. The processor provides computing and control capabilities. The memory includes a non-volatile storage medium and internal memory. The non-volatile storage medium stores an operating system, computer programs, and a database. The internal memory provides an environment for the operation of the operating system and computer programs in the non-volatile storage medium. The database stores user- and task-related data used in the aforementioned signal digitization method. The network interface communicates with external terminals via a network connection. When executed by the processor, the computer program implements a method for digitizing blink pulses.

[0110] Those skilled in the art will understand that Figure 6 The structure shown is merely a block diagram of a portion of the structure related to the present application and does not constitute a limitation on the computer device to which the present application is applied. Specific computer devices may include more or fewer components than those shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or have different component arrangements.

[0111] Those skilled in the art will understand that all or part of the processes in the above embodiments can be implemented by a computer program instructing related hardware. The computer program can be stored in a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, it can include the processes of the embodiments described above. Any references to memory, databases, or other media used in the embodiments provided in this application can include at least one of non-volatile and volatile memory. Non-volatile memory can include read-only memory (ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, flash memory, optical memory, high-density embedded non-volatile memory, resistive random access memory (ReRAM), magnetic random access memory (MRAM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), phase change memory (PCM), graphene memory, etc. Volatile memory can include random access memory (RAM) or external cache memory, etc. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM can take many forms, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) or Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). The databases involved in the embodiments provided in this application may include at least one type of relational database and non-relational database. Non-relational databases may include, but are not limited to, blockchain-based distributed databases. The processors involved in the embodiments provided in this application may be general-purpose processors, central processing units, graphics processing units, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, quantum computing-based data processing logic devices, etc., and are not limited to these.

[0112] The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner. Similar or identical parts between embodiments can be referred to mutually. Each embodiment focuses on its differences from other embodiments. In particular, hardware + program embodiments are basically similar to method embodiments, so the description is relatively simple; relevant parts can be referred to the descriptions in the method embodiments.

[0113] It should be noted that the devices, electronic devices, servers, etc., described above according to the method embodiments may also include other implementation methods, and specific implementation methods can be referred to the description of the relevant method embodiments. Furthermore, new embodiments formed by the combination of features between various methods, devices, and server embodiments still fall within the scope of this application, and will not be elaborated upon here.

[0114] In the description of this specification, the references to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," and / or "some embodiments," "some embodiments," "other embodiments," "ideal embodiments," etc., refer to specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described in connection with that embodiment or example, which are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the illustrative descriptions of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example, and certain features, structures, or characteristics in one or more embodiments of this specification may be appropriately combined.

[0115] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined in any way. For the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0116] The embodiments described above are merely illustrative of several implementations of the present invention, and while the descriptions are relatively specific and detailed, they should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be noted that those skilled in the art can make various modifications and improvements without departing from the concept of the present invention, and these all fall within the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of this invention patent should be determined by the appended claims.

[0117] The basic concepts have been described herein. It is obvious that the detailed disclosure above is merely illustrative and does not constitute a limitation of this specification. Although not explicitly stated herein, various modifications, improvements, and corrections may be made to this specification by those skilled in the art. Such modifications, improvements, and corrections are suggested in this specification and therefore remain within the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments described herein.

[0118] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will understand that various aspects of this specification can be described and illustrated in several patentable ways, including any new and useful combinations of processes, machines, products, or substances, or any new and useful improvements thereof. Accordingly, various aspects of this specification can be implemented entirely by hardware, entirely by software (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.), or by a combination of hardware and software. All of the above hardware or software may be referred to as a “data block,” “module,” “engine,” “module,” “component,” or “system.” Furthermore, various aspects of this specification may be represented as a computer product located on one or more computer-readable media, including computer-readable program code.

[0119] Computer storage media may contain a propagated data signal containing computer program code, for example, on baseband or as part of a carrier wave. This propagated signal may take various forms, including electromagnetic, optical, and suitable combinations thereof. Computer storage media can be any computer-readable medium other than a computer-readable storage medium, which can be connected to an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device to enable communication, propagation, or transmission of a program for use. The program code located on the computer storage medium can be propagated through any suitable medium, including radio, cable, fiber optic cable, RF, or similar media, or any combination of the above media.

[0120] The computer program code required for the operation of each part of this manual can be written in any one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C++, C#, VB.NET, Python, etc.; conventional procedural programming languages ​​such as C, Visual Basic, Fortran 3003, Perl, COBOL 3002, PHP, ABAP; dynamic programming languages ​​such as Python, Ruby, and Groovy; or other programming languages. This program code can run entirely on the user's computer, or as a standalone software package on the user's computer, or partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server. In the latter case, the remote computer can be connected to the user's computer through any network, such as a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), or connected to an external computer (e.g., via the Internet), or in a cloud computing environment, or used as a service such as Software as a Service (SaaS).

[0121] Furthermore, unless expressly stated in the claims, the order of processing elements and sequences, the use of numbers and letters, or other names described in this specification are not intended to limit the order of the processes and methods described herein. Although various examples have been discussed in the foregoing disclosure of some embodiments of the invention that are currently considered useful, it should be understood that such details are for illustrative purposes only, and the appended claims are not limited to the disclosed embodiments; rather, the claims are intended to cover all modifications and equivalent combinations that conform to the spirit and scope of the embodiments described herein. For example, while the system components described above can be implemented using hardware devices, they can also be implemented solely using software solutions, such as installing the described system on existing servers or mobile devices.

[0122] Similarly, it should be noted that, in order to simplify the description disclosed herein and thus aid in the understanding of one or more embodiments of the invention, the foregoing description of embodiments in this specification may sometimes combine multiple features into a single embodiment, drawing, or description thereof. However, this method of disclosure does not imply that the subject matter of this specification requires more features than those mentioned in the claims. In fact, the embodiments contain fewer features than all the features of a single embodiment disclosed above.

[0123] In some embodiments, numbers describing the quantity of components and attributes are used. It should be understood that such numbers used in the description of embodiments are modified in some examples with the terms "approximately," "approximately," or "generally." Unless otherwise stated, "approximately," "approximately," or "generally" indicates that the numbers are allowed to vary by ±20%. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters used in the specification and claims are approximate values, which may be changed depending on the characteristics required by individual embodiments. In some embodiments, numerical parameters should take into account specified significant digits and employ a general method of digit reservation. Although the numerical ranges and parameters used to confirm their breadth of range in some embodiments of this specification are approximate values, in specific embodiments, such values ​​are set as precisely as feasible.

[0124] For each patent, patent application, patent application publication, and other material, such as articles, books, specifications, publications, and documents, referenced in this specification, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. This excludes historical application documents that are inconsistent with or conflict with the content of this specification, as well as documents that limit the broadest scope of the claims in this specification (currently or subsequently appended to this specification). It should be noted that in the event of any inconsistency or conflict between the descriptions, definitions, and / or terminology used in the supplementary materials to this specification and the content of this specification, the descriptions, definitions, and / or terminology used in this specification shall prevail.

[0125] Finally, it should be understood that the embodiments described in this specification are merely illustrative of the principles of the embodiments described herein. Other variations may also fall within the scope of this specification. Therefore, alternative configurations of the embodiments described herein are intended to be illustrative rather than limiting, and should be considered consistent with the teachings of this specification. Accordingly, the embodiments described herein are not limited to those explicitly introduced and described herein.

Claims

1. A method for digitizing scintillation pulses, characterized in that, include: Collect the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test to obtain several target sampling points; The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; The first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test is determined based on the first parameter point corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses, and the same operation as the first parameter point is performed on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter points.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several target sampling points, including: The scintillation pulses output from the predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several target sampling points.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several target sampling points, including: The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several first sampling points. The sampling points are then filtered according to preset rules to obtain several target sampling points.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several target sampling points, including: The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are collected to obtain several sampling points. The sampling points above the baseline are selected as the target sampling points.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The scintillation detector under test includes single-channel scintillation detectors or multi-channel scintillation detectors.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Before acquiring the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, the method further includes: The scintillation detector under test is irradiated with high-energy particles.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, including: The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are acquired using an equal time interval sampling method.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, including: The scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test are acquired using a multi-voltage threshold sampling method.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, including: The first parameter point to the nth parameter point are obtained by fitting the target sampling points using the same modeling function.

10. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, including: For each flash pulse, the target sampling point is fitted using the same modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

11. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, The target sampling points are fitted using a modeling function to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, including: The same modeling function is used to fit several of the selected target sampling points to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

12. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test are determined based on several first parameter points, including: Weights are assigned to several first calibration parameter points, and the first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test are calculated.

13. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test are determined based on several first parameter points, including: The first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test is obtained by taking the average value of several first parameter points.

14. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The parameters include the time constant in a single-exponential model, a double-exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model.

15. A device for digitizing scintillation pulses, characterized in that, include: The data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, and obtain several target sampling points; The fitting module is configured to use a modeling function to fit the target sampling points to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; The calibration module is configured to determine the first calibration parameter point corresponding to the scintillation detector under test based on the first parameter point corresponding to at least a portion of the scintillation pulses, and to perform the same operation as the first parameter point on the remaining parameter points to obtain the corresponding calibration parameter point.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data acquisition module is configured to acquire scintillation pulses output from a predetermined channel of the scintillation detector under test, thereby obtaining several target sampling points.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The scintillation detector under test includes single-channel scintillation detectors or multi-channel scintillation detectors.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, Also includes: The radiation source is configured to illuminate the scintillation detector under test.

19. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using an equal time interval sampling method.

20. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test using a multi-voltage threshold sampling method.

21. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The fitting module is configured to use the same modeling function to fit the target sampling points to obtain the first parameter point to the nth parameter point.

22. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The calibration module is configured to assign weights to several first calibration parameter points and calculates the first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

23. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The calibration module is configured to take the average value of several first parameter points to obtain the first calibration parameter points corresponding to the scintillation detector under test.

24. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, obtain several first sampling points, and filter the sampling points according to preset rules to obtain several target sampling points.

25. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data acquisition module is configured to acquire the scintillation pulses output by the scintillation detector under test, obtain several sampling points, and select the sampling points above the baseline as the target sampling points.

26. The apparatus according to claim 15, characterized in that, The parameters include the time constant in a single-exponential model, a double-exponential model, a multi-exponential model, or a linear-exponential model.

27. A computer storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that, When the computer program is executed by a processor, it implements the steps of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 14.

28. A computer program product, characterized in that, It includes a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 14.

29. A radiation detection system, characterized in that, Includes the apparatus as described in any one of claims 15 to 26.

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