Optical link based readout system for Medipix2 quad X-ray detector

FANTI, VIVIANA;Marzeddu R;RANDACCIO, PAOLO;Aloisio A;Del Guerra A;Lanconelli N;Mettivier G;Montesi M. C;Pani R;Russo P.

2007-01-01

---

Abstract

An imaging system based on the Medipix2, a single photon counting pixel readout ASIC for X-ray hybrid detectors, has been developed for tomography imaging applications. The "quad assembly" houses four Medipix2 chips placed in a 2 x 2 array with an active area of about 3 x 3 cm(2). The readout system we present consists of four electronic cards and exploits the Medipix2 parallel readout mode and a fast optical link based on the Glink standard, giving high flexibility and EM interference immunity over long distance connections. A PCI board interfaces the imaging system to a standard PC. We expect a frame rate of 25 frame/s which allows real-time X-ray imaging acquisitions and fast computed tomography (CT) scanning. In this paper, we describe the DAQ project and the status of development. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.