Medical Design Briefs: 2021 Technology Leaders - 76

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Electronics
design also integrates several highspeed
peripheral controllers such as
SATA and USB 3.0 into the Zynq
MPSoC. The architecture is designed to
be scalable by easily adapting to different
sensor sizes.
Image Processing
Capturing high-speed raw data from
the sensor is the first step in the image
acquisition process. After the custom
video DMA (VDMA) reorganizes the full
image in external memory and all the
pixels of the image are correctly
reordered, the FPGA can enhance
image quality by performing image processing
operations, such as removing
fixed pattern noise using flat field correction
type processing.
Plenty of DSP block resources are provided
by the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+
MPSoC for image processing on the captured
data. A ZU7CG MPSoC device that
contains 1728 DSP slices is used on the
platform. Image data can be routed to
the DDR or directly to the back-end
interface that will stream the image/
video content on 10G Ethernet port(s)
over a UDP session.
Hardware Design
The hardware design had to overcome
multiple challenges, including
minimizing noise, integrating highspeed
digital with ultra-low noise circuits,
physical dimensions constraints,
and safety considerations. One of the
factors in mammography detectors is
chest wall constraints: the sensor has to
be located as close as possible to the
patient.
A combination of voltage regulators
and low-noise buck converters were used
to provide low-noise stable DC rails and
reduce electromagnetic interference.
The Xilinx Zynq can control and monitor
all onboard supplies and disable
unnecessary power rails to decrease
power consumption when required.
At the center of the system is the
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, which
is responsible for retrieving the image
sensing data coming from the Artix-7
FPGAs and creating the final image. For
optimal speed and power consumption,
DDR4 memory is used to store local
frame buffers and to support acquisition
at a fast frame rate. The Xilinx MIG
76
General description model
Digital X-ray technologies
DR
Direct
conversion
(1 stage)
Indirect
conversion
(2 stages)
CR
[4,5]
[6]
Scintillator
(Csl)
X-ray absorption
Conversion to
electric charge
Charge readout
Anolog-to-Digital
conversion
X-ray
photoconductor
(a:Se)
TFT
Array
Photodiode
(a-Silicone)
TFT Array
Digital Signal
Fig. 1 - A general description model for digital x-ray technologies.
(memory interface generator) automatically
does the required calibration.
Software Design
Analogic's detector software running
in the Zynq UltraScale+ hardware platform
is divided into different applications.
These applications manage noncritical
background tasks with Linux and
real-time control of the image data path
on the FPGA side. Multiple processors
that have access to shared and private
memory regions and peripherals are
used by the Zynq MPSoC hardware platform.
Based on the Mentor®
Embedded
Multicore Framework (MEMF) library,
most inter processor messaging goes
through system shared memory.
Results: Deliver an industry-leading
versatile solution for different medical
industry markets. Working in partnership
with Analogic, Orthogone used
innovative design and technology implementation
to develop a versatile, easy-touse
solution and deliver the project on
time.
" We've been working with Orthogone
for many years now, and we've had very
good success. They helped us meet our
development milestones, in spite of
changing priorities, changing requirements,
they were very flexible in
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
adapting to our needs, " says François
Boucher, director of engineering at
Analogic Canada. " We have to adapt to
market needs all the time, so sometimes
the original idea of a product may evolve
over time, and that changes some of the
specifications some of the requirements
so we need a lot of flexibility from our
partner to change, adapt, and still meet
the original milestone for the development.
Orthogone has distinguished
themselves helping us anchor our delivery
schedule. "
With the new converter that Analogic
and Orthogone developed in collaboration,
older x-ray equipment can benefit
from the Analogic detector for im -
proved radiology. The flexibility, versatility,
and technical capabilities that the
team built into the new advanced detector
allows Analogic to readily meet
requirements from various manufacturers
and expand into medical image processing
markets beyond mammography
detection.
This article was written by Alexandre
Raymond, CTO of Orthogone Technologies
Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada. For more information
about Orthogone, visit http://info.
hotims.com/79417-344. For more information
about Analogic, visit http://info.hotims.
com/79417-370.
Medical Design Briefs 2021 Technology Leaders
Photo
detector
Storage
Phosphor
(BaFBr:Eu2+
)
http://info.hotims.com/79417-344 http://info.hotims.com/79417-344 http://info.hotims.com/79417-370 http://info.hotims.com/79417-370 https://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
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