The ICCUB Technology Unit participates in a Pathfinder Open project of the European Innovation Council which has been recently selected. 

It is a five-year project worth 3.4 million euros to develop the next generation of the PetVision fast time-of-flight positron tomograph. The project will be coordinated by the Jožef Stefan Institute with partners from the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), the Institute for Instrumentation for Molecular Imaging in Valencia, the Bruno Kessler Foundation from Trento, the Rechst der Isar Clinic of the Technical University of Munich, Massachusetts General Hospital from Boston and Oncovision from Valencia.  

The partners will use various technological innovations to develop an ultrafast detector of annihilation gamma rays and use it to produce innovative apparatus for functional medical diagnostics. Out of 858 applications received, 57 projects were selected for financing. 

The ICCUB Technology Unit will design and produce a System-On-Chip version of FastIC in a 65 nm CMOS technology. FastIC developments are based on a collaboration between the ICCUB and the microelectronics section of CERN . The first prototype was submitted to fabrication in May 2020 and includes a fully functional design with 8 single-ended channel. FastIC has excellent timing properties. The FastIC SoC will be a customized 32 channel version of the FastIC ASIC implemented in 65 nm CMOS technology. A TDC with 30 ps time bin will be also included inside the ASIC in order to optimize performance, power consumption and system integration. 

With its Pathfinder scheme, the EIC supports the exploration of bold ideas for radically new technologies. It welcomes the high-risk/high gain and interdisciplinary cutting-edge science collaborations that underpin technological breakthroughs.