Diagnostic Imaging Solutions

LOGIC’s video-optimized Video Memory solutions are well-positioned to simplify medical imaging systems and lower development costs.

Frame/image buffering techniques play an important role in developing cutting-edge diagnostic imaging systems. With development costs making up a significant portion of industrial product costs, simplifying designs and speeding products to market is crucial. Increases in image resolution and bandwidth provide an opportunity for video-optimized memory solutions to simplify systems and reduce cost.

Diagnostic imaging systems such as X-ray and ultrasound have been in use for decades. Other systems, which include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear or positron emission tomography (PET), are newer. These new diagnostic imaging systems are complex and image-processing intensive, forcing manufacturers to introduce increasingly advanced features and improved performance.

The medical and scientifc industry faces many issues and challenges in terms of offering high quality imagery, real-time digital processing, and providing high performance, high-speed A-D and D-A conversion. Whether you're designing X-ray imaging machines, breath alcohol testers, or dialysis machines. A typical diagnostic imaging system consists of three sets of cards: data acquisition, data consolidation, and image/data processing cards.

Figure 1. Diagnostic Imaging

The data acquisition card, which filters incoming data, is the most cost-sensitive system card. Usually a diagnostic imaging system will consist of multiple data acquisition cards (in some cases, up to 20 cards per system). Once the data is compensated and filtered, it is sent to the data consolidation card for buffering and data alignment. For CT and PET scanners where the detectors rotate around the body, the data is serialized and sent across a slip ring electromechanical subassembly. Once the data has been collected, it is sent to the image/data processing cards. These cards perform heavy-duty filtering and the most algorithm-intensive image reconstruction. Once completed the final imaging and scaling functions for display are usually done on a single board computer (SBC).

Related links:
- SD/HD Cameras
- Logo insertion