10 ps challenge

The setting up of a challenge on fast timing to cross the mythic 10 ps frontier on FWHM Coincidence Time Resolution (CTR) for Time-of-Flight (TOF)-PET scanners (Today’s best performance is 250 ps for the Siemens Biograph Vision) is on its way. Inspired by numerous challenges that have had a great impact on human technologies (e.g. the Longitude Act during the XVIIIe century, the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh in 1924), there are presently a number of technological challenges organized by governmental organizations (e.g. NASA Directorate Centennial Challenges, UE H2020 Horizon Prize) or private foundations (e.g. XPrize foundation).

We have launched a 10 ps challenge to foster the next quantum leap in PET imaging and make reconstruction-less, high-sensitivity PET scanners a reality, thus paving the way towards reducing by an order of magnitude the radiation dose (currently 5-7 mSv for a total-body PET), the scan duration (currently > 10 min), and the scanning cost per patient (currently > 1000 € per scan).

This challenge is a possible tool to image immunotherapy. A dedicated session will be organized during the MEDAMI workshop on the rationale for setting up this 10 ps challenge and to shed light on the expected outcomes for TOF-PET and other applications. A state of progress on the setting up and organization of the challenge will also be shared and discussed with the participants.