Evaluation of Single-Chip, Real-Time Tomographic Data Processing on FPGA - SoC Devices

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel FPGA-based SoC platform for real-time, on-the-fly tomographic data processing directly from a PET scanner, reducing data volume and enabling immediate visualization without powerful local processing.

Contribution

It introduces a single-chip FPGA SoC system capable of real-time event building, filtering, and image reconstruction directly from scanner data streams, eliminating the need for external processing facilities.

Findings

Reduces data volume by converting raw data to list-mode.

Enables real-time visualization during data acquisition.

Demonstrates effective on-the-fly image reconstruction.

Abstract

A novel approach to tomographic data processing has been developed and evaluated using the Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) scanner as an example. We propose a system in which there is no need for powerful, local to the scanner processing facility, capable to reconstruct images on the fly. Instead we introduce a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) System-on-Chip (SoC) platform connected directly to data streams coming from the scanner, which can perform event building, filtering, coincidence search and Region-Of-Response (ROR) reconstruction by the programmable logic and visualization by the integrated processors. The platform significantly reduces data volume converting raw data to a list-mode representation, while generating visualization on the fly.