APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
Applications involving radiation monitoring and analysis, such as:
- Medical imaging
- Homeland security
- Environmental monitoring
- Scientific research
BENEFITS:
- Versatile – can be adapted to meet needs of custom radiation detection and imaging systems
- Enables real-time digital signal processing
- Can support up to sixty-four detector channels
BACKGROUND:
This technology provides a generic platform from which users can develop their own multichannel radiation detection and imaging systems that exploit real-time digital signal processing in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a multichannel electronic readout architecture for real-time digital signal processing (DSP) of radiation detector signals. The invention includes firmware and software for a digital communication architecture for multichannel readout electronics with fast analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). In addition, the invention provides a framework for real time digital signal processing of radiation detector electronic signals in FPGA.
The technology is comprised of design files for:
- Detector carrier boards, which can be plugged into for biasing and initial signal routing;
- Flexible circuits that connect low voltage, high voltage, ground, and signal lines between Detector Carrier Boards and the back-end system;
- A motherboard, which generates and distributes high voltage, converts unbalanced detector lines to differential pairs, distributes low voltage signals for readout, and routes detector ADCs;
- ADC cards that digitize differential pairs of detector signals and transmit them as serialized low-voltage-differential-signals (LVDS) to FPGA;
- FPGA boards that host ADC cards, integrate FPGA, perform power regulation, and include gigabit ethernet links; and
- Firmware that conducts DSP on digitized detector signals and sends digitized data packets over ethernet
Related software is also available.
Each of the components of this technology can be integrated together or used individually. Additionally, each of these components can be adapted to meet the needs of custom radiation detection and imaging systems, with up to sixty-four channels of readout.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
Joshua Cates
Ryan Pavlovsky
Marcos Turqueti
Status:
Copyrighted
OPPORTUNITIES:
Available for licensing