Current Status in Building a Compact and Mobile HTS MRI Instrument

Yavuz Ozturk, Boyang Shen, Richard Williams, James Gawith, Jiabin Yang, Jun Ma, Adrian Carpenter, Tim Coombs

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an indispensable tool in monitoring lipid-rich tissues and the musculoskeletal system. It however requires maintaining a huge homogeneous (1 to 7 T) field. That is where superconductors come into play since they are the only feasible way to create such fields. The state-of-the-art technology utilizes low critical temperature superconductors (LTS) which require cooling down to liquid helium temperatures (4.2K). The new generation superconductors, aka the high critical temperature superconductors (HTS), can operate up to relatively elevated temperatures (technically above 100K's). In addition to that, they can withstand larger magnetic field strengths which can theoretically go up to the order of hundred Teslas in magnitude. It is evident that LTS wires of current MRI magnet technology is at their limits and new pursuits such as reaching higher fields and reducing operational/maintenance costs are in the favor of HTS tapes. There is, in fact, another advantage beyond minimization of the cryogenic costs, namely the compactness of the overall system. Utilizing certain auxiliary techniques such as flux pumping and conductive cooling of the tapes, MRI magnets can be reduced in size substantially. That, in turn, enables constructing much smaller thus mobile MRI scanners which can be brought to patients' doorsteps. Here we present the current status of our project aiming to build an HTS MRI machine dedicated to use as a mobile head scanner.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9384214
JournalIEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
Volume31
Issue number5
Early online date23 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • flux pumps
  • high-temperature superconductors (HTS)
  • HTS magnets
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
  • mobile MRI

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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