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Automatic adjustment of a medical imaging data acquisition system to unknown delays in the input communication channels

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Abstract

In this article, novel FIFO and RAM-based Synchronization Modules to keep synchronism throughout the input channels of a Data Acquisition Electronics (DAE) system are proposed. DAE is a main component of a Medical Imaging System, namely, a Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) system. DAE input data comes from a scanner constituted by an array of scintillating crystals. The scanner captures radiation generated by human cells injected with a radioactive substance and converts it into electrical signals. The corresponding digital information is sent to the DAE. In order to deal with the huge amount of data, flowing at high data rates, point-to-point (p2p) communication channels are used between the scanner and the DAE. Propagation delays associated with the different communication channels may change differently. Additionally, differences among channel delays may exceed one clock period. Keeping synchronism in these circumstances requires more than the classical asynchronous FIFO solution. All these aspects motivate the work proposed in this article. The PEM DAE system is a multi-board, multi-FPGA, multi-clock domain system. Therefore, the DAE architecture follows a Globally Asynchronous, Locally Synchronous (GALS) design style. The novel Synchronization Modules proposed in this article are implemented in the DAE. The effectiveness of these new structures is validated through simulation and laboratorial test. Simulation and test results are presented.

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Notes

  1. In the presence of a specific radioactive substance, all human cells may emit γ ray photons. However, cancerous cells emit more than healthy ones. Therefore, cancerous cells location emerges, in the image, as luminous points in the overall almost uniform background radiation

  2. PEM system aims at the early detection of breast cancer achieving a spatial resolution less than 2mm.

  3. A false positive will disturb the patient, convincing her that she has a breast cancer; a false negative will prevent cancer early detection, drastically reducing the life-saving action and the patient’s survival rate. Either situation is unacceptable.

  4. http://www.xilinx.com/

  5. http://www.mentor.com/products/fv/modelsim/

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Acknowledgments

This study has been partially supported by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ((INESC-ID multiannual funding) through the PIDDAC Program funds) and by C. Leong PhD grant—SFRH/BD/31646/2006). It has also been partially supported by ADI (Portuguese Innovation Agency) in the scope of the PET II 70/00327 Project. We thank also the cooperation of our colleagues: P. Machado from INESC-ID, F. Piedade, N. Pimenta and P. Neves from INOV, and A. Trindade from LIP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INESC-ID—Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento, Lisbon, Portugal

    C. Leong, V. Bexiga, J. P. Teixeira & I. C. Teixeira

  2. IST—Instituto Superior Técnico, UTL, Lisbon, Portugal

    C. Leong, J. P. Teixeira, J. Varela & I. C. Teixeira

  3. LIP—Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Lisbon, Portugal

    R. Bugalho, M. Ferreira, P. Rodrigues, J. C. Silva & J. Varela

  4. CERN—Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, Genève, Switzerland

    J. C. Silva & J. Varela

  5. INOV—INESC Inovação, Lisbon, Portugal

    P. Lousã

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  1. C. Leong
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  2. V. Bexiga
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  3. J. P. Teixeira
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  4. R. Bugalho
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  5. M. Ferreira
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  6. P. Rodrigues
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  7. J. C. Silva
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  8. P. Lousã
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  9. J. Varela
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  10. I. C. Teixeira
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Correspondence to C. Leong.

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Leong, C., Bexiga, V., Teixeira, J.P. et al. Automatic adjustment of a medical imaging data acquisition system to unknown delays in the input communication channels. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 70, 213–227 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-011-9780-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-011-9780-9

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