Design and performance of an acquisition and control system for a positron camera with novel detectors

Author

Symonds-Tayler, J.R.N. ; Reader, A.J. ; Flower, M.A. ; Austin, V.E. ; Visvikis, D. ; Ott, R.J.

Author_Institution

R. Marsden NHS Trust, Sutton, UK

Volume

44

Issue

4

fYear

1997

fDate

8/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1527

Lastpage

1532

Abstract

A Sun-based data acquisition and control (DAQ) system has been designed for PETRRA, a whole-body positron camera using novel large-area detectors. The DAQ system uses a high-speed digital I/O card (S16D) installed on the SBus of a SPARC10 and a specially-designed Positron Camera Interface (PCI), which also controls the gantry and horizontal couch motion. Data in the form of different types of B-byte packets are acquired in list mode. Tests with a signal generator show that the DAQ system should be able to accommodate coincidence count-rates up to 100 kcps. The predicted count loss due to the DAQ system is ~13% at this count rate, provided asynchronous-read based software is used. The list-mode data acquisition system designed for PETRRA could be adapted for other 3D PET cameras with similar data rates, including dual-headed gamma cameras operating in coincidence mode

Keywords

biocontrol; biomedical equipment; cameras; computerised control; data acquisition; positron emission tomography; B-byte packets; PET; PETRRA; SPARC10; Sun-based system; acquisition-control system; coincidence mode; dual-headed gamma cameras; gantry; high-speed digital I/O card; horizontal couch motion; large-area detectors; list mode; medical diagnostic imaging; medical instrumentation; nuclear medicine; positron camera; signal generator tests; whole-body positron camera; Buffer storage; Cameras; Cancer; Concurrent computing; Control systems; Coprocessors; Data acquisition; Detectors; Positrons; Sun;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.632713

Filename

632713