Antennas in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

John M. Pauly
AG6WH
Stanford University

http://www.stanford.edu/~pauly
Why MRI?
MRI Contrast

K. Pauly, G. Gold
Stanford Rad 220
MRI Applications

Angiography Musculo-skeletal K. Pauly, G. Gold

Stanford Rad 220
Real Time MRI

•Coronary Artery
•3T Scanner
•10 Images/s

5
Fetal MRI

35 week old fetus with nodularity along ventricles

and failure of development of the corpus callosum
Reed Busse, PhD, GE ASL West
6
How Does MRI Work?
Magnetic Moment

1H Atom
Polarization

µ B0 µ
µ
µ

µ µ M0
µ µ
µ
µ

No Polarization Polarized
.timsnart FR lellarap lennahc-8 gnit roppus srefiilpma FR dna srotaludom rotcev FR htiw re
MRI Scanner
MRI Scanner
Excitation

ω0 = γB0

K. Pauly, G. Gold
Stanford Rad 220
Spatial Encoding

ω(x) = γ(Gx + B0)

K. Pauly, G. Gold
13
Stanford Rad 220
Piano Analogy

Spectrum

Time
Signal

K. Pauly, G. Gold
Stanford Rad 220
Spatial Encoding
Receive S(ω)
Spectrum
ω

s(t)
Body
ω(x) = γGx
Receive
Signal
Transmit Antennas
MRI Scanner
 Transmit Coil

Schematic Field Pattern Experiment

Hayes, et al. JMR 1985
 Birdcage Modes

RF
One Drive Port : Linear Polarization

Bei Zhang, ISMRM 2016

 Birdcage Modes
Coil

RFQ
RFI Rotation

Two Drive Ports : Circular Polarization

Bei Zhang, ISMRM 2016

 Parallel Transmit

Amp

Amp

Amp Amp

Amp

Amp
High power
RF Source Low power Body Coil
RF Source RF Amp Body Coil
RF Amps
Multiple
Single High
Low Power
PowerTransmit
Transmit Channel
Channels
 Parallel Transmit B1 Shimming
RF Linearization

Pascal Stang, Greig Scott, Stanford

RF Current Sensor

Primary
Winding on
Outer Layers 4ch Tx Coil with sensors

Secondary
Winding on
Inner Layers

(a)

Coil current sensor

Linearize Entire
Transmit Chain
Receive Antennas
 Receive Coils

Array Receive Coils

Zhang et al, MRM 2015 Coil layout
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Receive Coils

Circuit for an Individual Element

Array Receive Coils
Zhang et al, MRM 2015
 Receive Coils

Array Receive Coils

Zhang et al, MRM 2015 Individual Coil Sensitivities
Current Receive Coils
Image courtesy: Siemens

Cables and Baluns Constraining Arrays

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Wearable Wireless Coil Arrays
Wearable Wireless Coil Arrays
Low Power Digital
Transponders In-Bore propagation

Software Defined
Multi-Channel
Receiver

Pilot Tone
Wireless Power Q-spoil
Clock
Wireless Power
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 Near-Field Power

“Tesla apparatus”, Secor, 1921

 Wireless Power For Array Coils

Batteries could limit scan time

Need about 100 mW per
channel
Our goal is to deliver 10 W
Minimal interaction inside the
MRI bore

K. Byron, et al. ISMRM 2016, Stanford

Wireless Power Transfer System
 RF Gated System

Power Amplifier Antenna Tuner Filter 10 MHz λ/4 Filter

64 MHz λ/4
RF Switch
Controlled by: Primary Coil
1) Medusa
module Diode Rectifier
50Ω

Pickup
2) Trigger delayed Coil
from the TX
exciter unblank
Signal Storage
signal
source Capacitor
Wireless Powering 11W Light

Drive power is
cycled on and off
at 1 Hz
 Noise Measurements

Area used to
measure
background
noise voltage Not Transmitting Harvesting 1 W Harvesting estimated 5 W
0.0215 rms RF Gated RF Gated
0.0221 rms 0.0219 rms
Low Power Electronics
Possible Design: Swaddle Coil

Transponders handle
several local coils
MRI Signal Characteristics
1.0

K Space Amplitude
.1

.01

.001

.0001
0 50 100 150 200 250

500kHz image bandwidth, so 1 Msps or 500 Ksps I/q 16-20bits

output, 100 mW/ch.

K-space compressible by ~25% because of significant bit zeros.

50% data acquisition duty cycle.

Leads to 6-8 Mbps per coil with prior decimation, compression,

buffering.
Receiver Architectures
60-100mW Demodulate to IF
10-20mW
Poly 18-bit SAR 18 Mbps
LNA filter 1Msps transmitter

Low IF image reject

Direct to Digital
90-110mW

Pipeline 
 Downconvert 20 Mbps

LNA
20-80 Msps decimate transmitter
Synchronization

IF
MRI requires great
LNA A/D frequency stability

Where do we get the

IF signal?
Synchronization

Put a carrier on the 10 MHz

LNA A/D wireless power signal

Use a frequency multiplier

to get the frequency you
want

Problem: wireless power coil

impedance changes with load
Wireless Power
Synchronization

~ 1 GHz
IF
LNA A/D Transmit at 1 GHz

Divide down to the

frequency you want

Problem: phase shifts due

to propagation
Synchronization
1 GHz signal transmitted
from the magnet bore

Demodulated with the

original signal

Variation is due to
subject motion

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Synchronization

LO ~
IF
LNA A/D Use a local oscillator for
the IF

Transmit it out, and track

its frequency

Fix the data up later

Synchronization

Track the transmit RF

LNA A/D
IF
Very frequency stable

Very high SNR

Problem: people do strange

things with RF waveforms
Transmit RF Coil
Wireless Data
 Wireless Data Transmission

mm-Wave Receiver

RF coils
Kamal Aggarwal, Ada Poon
Image: IEEE Spectrum Low Power, mm-Wave Transmitter Stanford
Commercial High Speed Links

WirelessHD (60 GHz) UWB 3-5GHz

10-28Gb/s Pulse-Link Cwave
Silicon Image, UltraGig-6400, 500mW GEN 1: 1Gb/s

802.11ac

“older” BCM4334
in iPhone 5s
802.11ad 60GHz (WiGig)
4.6 Gb/s SC, 7Gb/s OFDM
Tensorcom < 250mW
802.11ac (5 GHz)
Wilocity, WIL6300, 200-300mW BCM4354, 2x2 MIMO 867 Mb/s in
80 MHz channel (2-stream)
Commercial High Speed Links

• Power consumption < 15mW

• Distance < 50cm
WirelessHD (60 GHz)
10-28Gb/s
Silicon Image, UltraGig-6400, 500mW
• Simpler Modulation
• OOK

802.11ad 60GHz (WiGig)

4.6 Gb/s SC, 7Gb/s OFDM
Tensorcom < 250mW
Wilocity, WIL6300, 200-300mW
60 GHz Radio

Aggarwal, Taghivand, Rajavi, and Poon, Stanford

 60 GHz Radio

TX Power (mW)
10 10cm
1
0.1
0.0110 100 1000
Data Rate (Mb/s)

2 Gb/s at 10 mW
Die Photo Block Diagram -2.7 dBi Antenna Gain
 On Chip Antenna Gain

Max gain: 1.6dBi

FR4 PCB
On-chip Dipole
Thinned to 100µm from 600µm
Add Metal Reflector
Max gain: 5.2dBi

FR4 PCB
On-chip Dipole
λ/4 Thinned to 100µm

Metal Reflector at lambda/4

 Add Dielectic Lens
Max gain: 9.1dBi
FR4 Dielectric lens

λ/2

FR4 PCB

λ/4 On-chip Dipole

Thinned to 100µm

Metal Reflector
Flexible Coils Printed on Fabric
 Printed Electronics

J. Corea, B. Lechene, A. Flynn, A.C. Arias, M. Lustig UCB

Printed Electronics
 Flexible Receive Array

Eight channel printed coil array (left)


Two Four-Channel Printed Coils
Twelve Channel Commercial Array Coil (right)
Receive Array Performance

Eight Channel Printed Coil

Twelve Channel Commercial

Array Coil
4-Channel Neonate Coil

Four Channel Neonate 4D Flow Images

Swaddle Coil 5X acceleration
Conclusions
Conclusions

Lots of antennas in an MRI system

Lots of borrowed Ham Radio technology
 Thanks!
•Greig Scott (Stanford) •Miki Lustig, KK6MRI (UCB)
•Pascal Stang, KF6PJZ (Stanford) •Ana Claudia Arias (UCB)
•Shreyas Vasanawala (Stanford) •Joesph Corea, KK6KKE (UCB)
•Joseph Cheng, KK6QYY (Stanford) •Anita Flynn, KI6LO (UCB)
•Jonathan Lu, KK6QZH (Stanford) •Balthazar Lechene (UCB)

•Kelly Byron (Stanford)
•Sawson Taheri, KG6NUB (Stanford) •Thomas Grafendorfer (GE)

•Kamal Aggarwall (Stanford) •Fraser Robb (GE)

•Ada Poon (Stanford)

•Andreas Port (ETH) Grant Support: R01EB008108, P41EB015891,
P01CA159992, R01EB009690, R01EB019241,
and GE Healthcare
Wireless Future
1921

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