Zecotek Photonics declared that it has received U.S. Patent Allowance for data acquisition for positron emission tomography (PET) scanning devices. The patent portfolio of Zecotek will become powerful, and the company anticipates being positioned as a well-established patent holder within the photonics technology environment.
The data acquisition board and readout system form a major part of PET scanning devices. Being a development partner and key financier of several imaging components with the radiology department of the University of Washington, Zecotek holds the exclusive license rights for data acquisition methods and its design boards have been validated for use in advanced PET scanners.
The data acquisition boards ensure operation with any detector design as they have been designed for either digitizing analog signals or accepting direct digital serial input. By using the list mode acquisition philosophy, a master set of software can mechanically be compatible with any detector/scanner topology. This versatile feature allows the user to opt various time segments from a study, without being done as a part of the acquisition setup. The system is so flexible that it can fit with any scanner just by updating the card firmware followed by installation on the boards, thereby minimizing the engineering costs of creating a new system.
Zecotek is co-operating with a strategic partner for integration of three major elements of a PET scanning device such as solid-state MAPD photo detectors, the data acquisition board and readout system, and LFS crystals. Each of these key elements however has patents or patents pending. The company has started working on integrating an advanced PET scanner configuration for the BRIC markets.