The invention relates to phase-coherent read-out of sensor nodes (3) of a
magnetic resonance imaging system (1) with a digital
serial communication network (2). According to the invention, the network (2) comprises
multiple sensor nodes (3) for detecting a
radio frequency signal from a patient who is under examination by the
magnetic resonance imaging system (1), and a host node (4) which is connected to the sensor nodes (3) via a
network link (5) for merging and
processing digital sensor data received from the sensor nodes (3), wherein the host node (4) comprises a
receiver (6) connected to the
network link (5) for receiving data over the
network link (5), and a
transmitter (7) connected to the network link (5) for transmitting data over the network link (5), the sensor nodes (3) each comprise an analog-to-
digital converter (8) for converting the detected
radio frequency signal to the digital sensor data, a
receiver (9) connected to the network link (5) for receiving data over the network link (5), a
transmitter (10) connected to the network link (5) for transmitting data over the network link (5), and a
clock and
data recovery unit (11) with a
clock device which is configured for miming on a preset free-running frequency, the frequency of the
data transmission over the network link (5) is set to a
fixed frequency relative to the preset free-running frequency of the
clock devices, and the clock and
data recovery units (11) are configured for generating a recovered
clock signal for controlling the analog-to-
digital converter (8) of their
sensor node by regulating the frequency of the clock device of their
sensor node (3) to lock to the frequency of the
data transmission over the network link (5). In this way, the possibility of phase coherent sensory
data acquisition with a
magnetic resonance imaging system (1) is provided in a robust and cost-efficient way.