Data reduction architecture for nuclear medicine imagers

A nuclear imaging apparatus comprising:

• at least one source of radiation that emits γ-rays by nuclear decay;
• an array of solid state detector arrays for detecting γ-rays and generate corresponding detector signals;
• an array of electronics that each process the detector signals from one of the detector arrays;
• an array of first level arbitration systems that order the detector signals for each detector array for processing;
• a second level arbitration system that orders the detector signals from the array of first level arbitration systems;
• a reconstruction processor that processes the detector signals into human readable format.

A nuclear imaging apparatus comprising:

• at least one source of radiation;
• an array of solid state detector arrays for detecting the radiation from the source as radiation events;
• an array of electronics that includes a plurality of event analyzers that determine event information, the event information including:
• a logical truth of a received radiation event;
• a location of the individual detector at a time it received the radiation event;
• and,
• an energy of the received radiation event;
• a reconstruction processor that processes the event information into human readable format.

A nuclear camera comprising:

• an array of detectors which each detect incident radiation and output a signal in response to received radiation, the detector array being divided into a plurality of groups of detectors;
• a plurality of signal processing circuits, each detector group being connected with a corresponding, dedicated group of the signal processing circuits such that each output signal is processed;
• a plurality of first arbitration systems, each first arbitration system being connected with a corresponding, dedicated detector group for arbitrating and ordering the processed output signals from its corresponding detector group;
• a second arbitration system connected with the plurality of first arbitration systems for arbitrating and ordering the output signals from the plurality of first arbitration systems;
• and,
• a reconstruction processor which reconstructs the output signals from the second arbitration system into an image representation.

A method of nuclear imaging comprising:

• detecting γ-ray radiation from a subject;
• arbitrating an order in which the detected γ-ray radiation is recognized, the step of arbitrating including:
• a first level of arbitration;
• and,
• a second level of arbitration;
• reconstructing the detected γ-ray radiation into an image representation of the subject.

A nuclear imaging apparatus comprising:

• a means for detecting γ-rays from a subject;
• a means for arbitrating an order in which the γ-rays are detected including:
• a means for encoding an address representing a detector channel that triggered an arbitration logic with a signal;
• a means for enabling an analog multiplexer to send the signal to an output port;
• a means for providing a composite trigger signal indicating to subsequent circuitry that the signal has been selected for processing;
• and,
• a means for locking out subsequent signals until the arbitration logic has returned to a ready state;
• a means for reconstructing the detected γ-rays into an image representation of the subject.

A logic circuit arbitrator comprising:

• a plurality of signal generators that generate signals in response to photonic stimuli;
• a first signal processor that monitors a group of the signal generators for generated signals and selectively measures magnitudes of, and addresses to the signals;
• a temporary memory that stores the magnitudes and addresses of the generated signals until such time that a data collection bus tranfers them to an event archive;
• and,
• a token that allows the temporary memory to pass the magnitudes and addresses of the stored information to the data collection bus.