Network based High Performance Data Acquisition System for PET Scanner

Abstract

Introduction: A network based data acquisition (DAQ) system for positron emission tomography (PET) is developed. PET system with high sensitivity and resolution requires high performance DAQ system since large amount of data are being created. Most DAQ acquisition systems for PET are dedicated to one system in terms of output signal types, interface and channel configurations. Modular system which can adopt different input modules was introduced for easy configuration to receive different types of output signal from various PET systems. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based signal processing and data transfer with 1-Gbps Ethernet network was used for high system count rate and scalable system. Methods: The DAQ system is composed of 3 boards, input, ADC and FPGA modules. Each DAQ system can acquire 40 analog signal inputs and 10 trigger inputs from PET system. 10-Gbps network switch is used for data transfer and scalable expansion of DAQ system. Results: The 10-Gbps Ethernet network DAQ system was able to acquire the data from the PET scanner with maximum singles count rate of 57.6 Mcps. Conclusions: A 10-Gbps Ethernet network based data acquisition system designed to acquire signals from various PET systems with high system count rate performance was developed. Scalablility from 40 to 10,000 readout channel is possible with use of Ethernet based DAQ system.