1. A Flexible Open Source Electronics System for Radiotracer Imaging
14th International Conference on Accelerator & Large Experimental Physics Control Systems.
Pre-conference Open Hardware Workshop, San Francisco, 10/06/2013
A Flexible Open Source Electronics System for Radiotracer Imaging
Qiyu Peng
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2. Typical Camera Development Steps
Idea for Detector / Camera
Build Prototype
It Works GREAT!!!
Next Step — Full Camera
Detector Scale-Up is Clear
Electronics Scale-Up is Hard!
Your Choice — Large Development Project or Lower-Performance System
Our Community Needs Industrial-Strength Electronics!!!

3. Everybody Wins if We Pool Our Efforts
Concept
Nuclear Medicine Research Community Needs “Industrial Strength” Electronics
Needs Can Be Met By a Single, Flexible Design!
Heavy Use of FPGAs
Highly Programmable Electronics
Avoids Duplication of Effort By Sharing and Modifying Code, Community
Everybody Wins if We Pool Our Efforts

4. OpenPET is the GATE of Nuclear Medical Imaging Electronics
Vision
Open Source
Hardware, Firmware, and Software
Schematics, Gerbers, BOM,…
Standardized Architecture
Compatible Alternate Hardware
Software Readily Transportable
Active User Community
Share Software and Expertise
Module, Calibration, DAQ, Display,…
OpenPET is the GATE of Nuclear Medical Imaging Electronics

5. Like Open Source Software!
Features
High-Performance
# of Channels, Rate, Energy, Timing, …
Very Flexible
Type of Detector, Camera Configuration, Event Word Definition
User-Modifiable
Schematics, Source Code, Knowledge Base
User-Friendly
Instructions, Documentation, Can Buy Boards
Like Open Source Software!

6. … Architecture Coincidence Unit Up to 8 Detector Units USB-2
Detector Boards
Coin. Interface Bd.
Multiplexer Bds
PC Interface …
Up To Eight Detector Units, 1 Coincidence Unit
Up to 2048 Analog Inputs (512 Block Detectors)
PC Interface Board Connects to PC

7. Architecture Detector Unit USB-2 Detector Boards PC Interface Board
1 Support Crate, Up To Eight Detector Boards
Up to 256 Analog Inputs (64 Block Detectors)
PC Interface Board Connects to PC

8. Hardware Back View of the Support Crate
Support Board
16-Ch Detector Board
Power supply
Back View of the Support Crate
Rack Mountable Crate
Host PC Interface
User IO
Debugging
Front View of the Support Crate
Hardware Assembly (small system)

9. Software

10. Software System configuration Data acquisition script
Data analysis and visualization (flood map)
Data analysis and visualization (Energy spectrum)

11. Documentation

12. https://github.com/openpet-developer
Distribution

13. Challenges Open source software or hardware?
--> Open source hardware is a new concept.
--> DOE and LBNL don't know how to deal with it.
--> “Open source”: the users can acquire and modify.
--> In our case, we distribute all the information needed to manufacture the boards. The users will not be modifying the circuit boards.
--> We are considered to be distributing open source software, not hardware.

14. Challenges Liability of hardware
--> There are conventional ways that LBNL protects themselves from open source software, especially as other developers are likely to sign such agreements.
--> The hardware board manufacturers are not likely to assume the liability.
What happens if somebody uses this electronics to build a camera, that camera mis-diagnoses a patient, and the patient sues everybody under the sun (including LBNL)?

15. Challenges Intellectual property
--> License agreement through access control
Registration forms
Source code license agreement

16. Challenges Starting and developing user community
--> Documentation, forum, training videos,
user meetings
Source code version control (developers)
--> GitHub with administration