A single-photon counting detector read-out system for mammography with synchrotron radiation has been developed with the aim to meet the needs of the mammographic imaging station of the SYRMEP beamline at ELETTRA. The system called PICASSO (Phase Imaging for Clinical Application with Silicon detector and Synchrotron radiatiOn) is a modular detector that implements a read-out system with MYTHEN II ASICs, an embedded Linux-based controller board and a Scientific Linux acquisition workstation. The system architecture and characteristics are herein presented. The system was tested at the SYRMEP beamline and achieved a frame rate of 33 Hz for 8448 channels at 24-bit dynamic range, and it is capable of continuously acquiring up to 2000 frames. Standard mammographic phantoms were imaged and good quality images were obtained at doses comparable with what is delivered in conventional full field mammographic systems.
