Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

Andrew Philip Moor

Ziad Burbar

James Luke Corbeil

Nan Zhang

John David Keller

Michael E Casey

Vladimir Y Panin

Mehmet Aykac

William F Jones

Johnny H Reed

Harold E Rothfuss

John E Breeding

John W Young

Martin Judenhofer

Wing K Luk

David W Townsend

William Scott Hood

John Keller

Kenneth Puterbaugh

A fluid coolant system for a gantry of a medical imaging apparatus cools scalable detector electronic assemblies (DEAs) within the gantry. Each DEA includes within its modular housing a first chill plate thermally conductively coupled to cooling detector elements therein and a separate, second chill plate thermally conductively coupled to other electronic components therein, such as electronic circuit boards and/or power supplies. In some embodiments, the first chill plate is oriented between the detector elements and the second chill plate, for thermally isolating the detector elements from other heat dissipating components within the DEA. In some embodiments, coolant flow cascades sequentially through the first chill plate and then through the second chill plate.

Cooling system integrated within modular, detector electronic assembly for a diagnostic medical imaging apparatus

A fluid coolant system for a gantry of a medical imaging apparatus cools scalable detector electronic assemblies (DEAs) within the gantry. Each DEA includes therein a first chill plate for cooling detector elements and a second chill plate for cooling electronic components and power supplies. Coolant flow cascades sequentially through the first chill plate and then through the second chill plate. Plural DEAs in an interconnected chain cascade coolant in sequence through all their first chill plates, before cascading the coolant through all their second chill plates. A matrix of the scalable DEAs are circumferentially and axially oriented within the imaging system's gantry, for any axial length scanning field of the imaging apparatus.

Modular, scalable cooling system for a diagnostic medical imaging apparatus

A framework for power management. The framework includes at least one power distribution board disposed within a radio-frequency (RF) cabin of a medical imaging system and coupled to an external reference clock. The power distribution board may include a clock circuit that generates one or more output clock signals based on a reference clock signal from the external reference clock. One or more switching regulators may be coupled to the clock circuit. The one or more switching regulators may be synchronized to the one or more output clock signals and provide power to one or more endpoint loads.

Power distribution in a medical imaging system

Systems and methods include generation of a source optical signal outside of a radiofrequency-shielded cabin based on a reference electrical clock signal, transmission of the source optical signal into the radiofrequency-shielded cabin via optical media, generation of an electrical clock signal based on the source optical signal within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin, jitter cleaning of the electrical clock signal within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin to generate a jitter-cleaned electrical clock signal based on an average frequency of the electrical clock signal and a jitter of a magnetically-compatible jitter cleaner oscillator, and transmission of the jitter-cleaned electrical clock signal to a plurality of positron emission tomography scanner detectors disposed within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin.

Timing signal distribution to pet imaging components via optical path

A method comprises: detecting a plurality of radiation events using a plurality of radiation detectors; determining a fraction of the plurality of radiation events, such that a coincidence circuit has sufficient capacity to process each radiation event in the fraction of the plurality of radiation events; counting the determined fraction of the plurality of radiation events using the coincidence circuit, and excluding a remainder of the plurality of radiation events from the counting; and performing positron emission tomography (PET) processing on each radiation event in the fraction of the plurality of radiation events.

Coincidence circuit with splitter

Gain values of PMTs of a PET scanner's detectors are balanced based on detected radiation from a radioactive calibration source placed in an FOV of the scanner. A time alignment is performed for scintillator crystals of the detectors based on TOF computations based on gamma photons associated with the radioactive calibration source. Baseline data is acquired using intrinsic background radiation of the scintillator crystals, without any object in the FOV. A first set of data, based on the baseline data, is stored in a memory of the scanner. After the acquisition of the baseline data, test data is acquired using intrinsic background radiation of the scintillator crystals, without any object in the FOV. A calibration status of the scanner or of an environment surrounding the scanner is automatically checked based on a comparison between the stored first set of data and a second set of data.

Method and apparatus for automatic calibration check of PET scanner using intrinsic background radiation of scintillator crystals

A common or single type of positron emission tomography (PET) coincidence processor is useable with different PET systems. The ports are configurable to operate with different coincidence algorithms, allowing different numbers of ports to be used in different systems. The ports are configurable to provide different outputs and/or connect with different types of detectors. A programming port allows programming of an appropriate coincidence algorithm so that different such algorithms are usable by the controller. Any one or more of these accessible and/or versatile features are provided on a controller.

Versatile PET coincidence processor

A programmable memory is provided in each of a plurality of detector modules arrayed in a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. Each detector module memory stores data associated with its respective detector module. Each memory may be coupled to a processor via a transmission bus. A display device may be coupled to the processor for displaying information relating to information obtained from the detector module memories.

Enhanced PET scanner detector module

An event data transmission scheme is provided for reducing positron emission tomography event losses. The event data transmission scheme employs a more effective use of available data bandwidth. Each of a plurality of detector data slots is connected directly to a data aggregation control interface, and the control interface is connected to a coincidence processor.

Method and apparatus for reducing positron emission tomography (PET) event losses by effective bandwidth utilization

A patient bed drive mechanism, under control of a processor, is capable of continuously moving a patient bed through the a TOF-PET detector array having a stationary field of view (FOV) for a distance in excess of the physical extent of an axis of the array FOV. A direct memory access (DMA) rebinner card is coupled to the detector array to receive therefrom a stream of TOF-PET coincidence event data during the extent of movement of the bed. Image projection data are generated in real time from the acquired stream of TOF-PET coincidence event data via the DMA card.

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Knoxville, TN, United States of America

Andrew Philip Moor