To study brain functionality in neurological diseases, Prof. D’Ascenzo explores the frontier of brain PET technology, investigating the potential of a digital Helmet PET system, which adapts to the head shape with a half-spherical configuration. Its high sensitivity and count-rate capability enable short dynamic frames, opening the possibility of high-resolution dynamic imaging of subjects in free-motion.

The compactness and portability of the digital AGRI-PET system is enabled also by a compact sensor technology, the CMOS SiPM, developed by Prof. D’Ascenzo. The sensor, realized in a CMOS compatible process, reaches an unprecedented photo detection efficiency of 43% at a 420 nm spectral region and a single photon time resolution of 70 ps (FWHM). On this basis, he is one of the inventors of the MVT-SiPM, which embeds single photon spatiotemporal digital signal processing on a single chip, enabling high resolution and sensitivity digital PET technologies.

The Agri-PET technology has been recognized internationally and is adopted at the Digital Imaging Multimodal Platform node of the Eurobioimaging European Research Infrastructure in Italy, and at the PETAL international consortium on dynamic crop functional imaging.