GigaFRoST: the gigabit fast readout system for tomography

Area of Science:

• Synchrotron radiation science
• Materials science
• Biophysics

Background:

• Advancements in CMOS technology enable faster tomographic microscopy at synchrotrons.
• Limited detector memory restricts acquisition time for dynamic systems at high frame rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel detection and readout system to overcome limitations in high-speed tomographic microscopy.
• To enable continuous data acquisition and processing for dynamic system investigations.

Main Methods:

• Development of the GigaFRoST system using a commercial CMOS sensor.
• Continuous data acquisition and streaming at 7.7 GB/s to a dedicated backend server.
• Implementation of dynamic data pre-processing and reduction.

Main Results:

• The GigaFRoST system achieves continuous data streaming at 7.7 GB/s.
• Overcomes the limitation of short acquisition times due to detector memory.
• Facilitates handling of large datasets (tens of TByte/day) from fast tomographic experiments.

Conclusions:

• GigaFRoST significantly enhances the capability of tomographic microscopy at synchrotron facilities.
• Enables the study of realistic dynamic systems with unprecedented speed and duration.
• Addresses the critical data handling challenges in modern synchrotron experiments.