Phase-coherent read-out of mri sensor nodes

Abstract

The invention relates to phase-coherent read-out of sensor nodes () of a magnetic resonance imaging system () with a digital serial communication network (). According to the invention, the network () comprises multiple sensor nodes () for detecting a radio frequency signal from a patient who is under examination by the magnetic resonance imaging system (), and a host node () which is connected to the sensor nodes () via a network link () for merging and processing digital sensor data received from the sensor nodes (), wherein the host node () comprises a receiver () connected to the network link () for receiving data over the network link (), and a transmitter () connected to the network link () for transmitting data over the network link (), the sensor nodes () each comprise an analog-to-digital converter () for converting the detected radio frequency signal to the digital sensor data, a receiver () connected to the network link () for receiving data over the network link (), a transmitter () connected to the network link () for transmitting data over the network link (), and a clock and data recovery unit () with a clock device which is configured for miming on a preset free-running frequency, the frequency of the data transmission over the network link () is set to a fixed frequency relative to the preset free-running frequency of the clock devices, and the clock and data recovery units () are configured for generating a recovered clock signal for controlling the analog-to-digital converter () of their sensor node by regulating the frequency of the clock device of their sensor node () to lock to the frequency of the data transmission over the network link (). In this way, the possibility of phase coherent sensory data acquisition with a magnetic resonance imaging system () is provided in a robust and cost-efficient way.