• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.107-119
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• 2014

Purpose : To efficiently evaluate phased array coil performance using a software tool box with which we can make visual comparison of the sensitivity of every coil element between the real experiment and EM simulation. Materials and Methods: We have developed a $C^{{+}{+}}$- and MATLAB-based software tool called Phased Array Coil Evaluator (PACE). PACE has the following functions: Building 3D models of the coil elements, importing the FDTD simulation results, and visualizing the coil sensitivity of each coil element on the ordinary Cartesian coordinate and the relative coil position coordinate. To build a 3D model of the phased array coil, we used an electromagnetic 3D tracker in a stylus form. After making the 3D model, we imported the 3D model into the FDTD electromagnetic field simulation tool. Results: An accurate comparison between the coil sensitivity simulation and real experiment on the tool box platform has been made through fine matching of the simulation and real experiment with aids of the 3D tracker. In the simulation and experiment, we used a 36-channel helmet-style phased array coil. At the 3D MRI data acquisition using the spoiled gradient echo sequence, we used the uniform cylindrical phantom that had the same geometry as the one in the FDTD simulation. In the tool box, we can conveniently choose the coil element of interest and we can compare the coil sensitivities element-by-element of the phased array coil. Conclusion: We expect the tool box can be greatly used for developing phased array coils of new geometry or for periodic maintenance of phased array coils in a more accurate and consistent manner.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2010

The effectiveness of 3.0T phase array coil images was tested by comparing signal-to-noise ratios for the same coil images relative to 1.5T endorectal coil images. Signal intensities were measured in the three regions of prostate, central and peripheral (right and left) after 40 patients with prostate cancer were imaged during the period between Jan. 2008 and Oct. 2009 with T2 W, T1 W, and DW images obtained respectively using endorectal coil on a 1.5T MR scanner and phase array coil on a 3.0T MR scanner. For quantitative analysis, comparisons of average SNRs for the same ROIs were made between groups scanned with a 1.5T and a 3.0T MR scanner. The signal-to-noise ratios were shown to increase more sharply when using a phase array coil at a 3.0T MR scanner compared to using an endorectal coil at a 1.5T MR scanner.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2005

Purpose : To develop a novel approach to calculate the sensitivity profiles of the phased array coil for use in non-uniform intensity correction. Materials and Methods : The proposed intensity correction method estimates the sensitivity profile of the coil to extract intensity variations that represent the scanned image. The sensitivity profile is estimated by fitting a non-linear curve to various angles of projections through the imaged object in order to eliminate the high-frequency image content. Filtered back projection is then used to compute the estimates of the sensitivity profile of each coil. The method was applied both to phantom and brain images from 8-channel phased-array coil and 4-channel phased-array coil, respectively. Results : Intensity-corrected images from the proposed method have more uniform intensity than those from the commonly used 'sum-of-squares' approach. By using the proposed correction method, the intensity variation was reduced to $6.1\%$ from $13.1\%$, acquired from the 'sum-of-squares'. Conclusion : The proposed method is more effective at correcting the intensity non-uniformity of the phased-array surface-coil images than the conventional 'sum-of-squares' method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2010

EMAT has been applied in various fields for flaw detection and material characterization because it has noncontact property in wave generation and a good mode selectivity. Unfortunately, however, EMAT shows low signal to noise ratio relative to commercial contact transducer because of low energy conversion efficiency. If the phase matching through the control of time delay between each coil consisting of the array EMAT is accomplished, it is expected that it will be a solution for the improvement of low signal to noise ratio. In this experiment, the phased array EMATs which consists of 3 or 4 meander coils and one big magnet were fabricated for surface and vertical shear wave generation. Effect of phased delay control on signal directivity and amplitude enhancement was verified. A slit with the depth of 0.5 mm and a side-drill hole of 0.5 mm diameter were clearly detected by fabricated phased array EMATs, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2008

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-26
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• 2009

This study proposed an improved center array-sequencing phase unwrapping (ICASPU) algorithm. 2% agarose phantom dopped with 0.6mM/l MnCl2 was used with clinical 1.5T MRI system and commercial knee coil. Obtained k-space data(raw-data) was transmitted to PC and reconstructed into phase image with MATLAB software. Previous center array-sequence phase unwrapping algorithm wascompared with proposed ICASP algorithm using second order regression analysis. As a result, we found that the amount of error on proposed ICASPU method is less about 5 times than that of previous CASPU method. In this study, we exploit improved Center array-sequence phase unwrapping algorithm and expect to apply to images including phase informations.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.245-250
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• 2011

Parallel imaging technique can provide several advantages for a multitude of MRI applications. Especially, in SENSE technique, sensitivity maps were always required in order to determine the reconstruction matrix, therefore, a number of difference approaches using sensitivity information from coils have been demonstrated to improve of image quality. Moreover, many filtering methods were proposed such as adaptive matched filter and nonlinear diffusion technique to optimize the suppression of background noise and to improve of image quality. In this study, we performed SENSE reconstruction using computer simulations to confirm the most suitable method for the feasibility of filtering effect and according to changing order of polynomial fit that were applied on variation of spatial resolution of sensitivity map. The image was obtained at 0.32T(Magfinder II, Genpia, Korea) MRI system using spin-echo pulse sequence(TR/TE = 500/20 ms, FOV = 300 mm, matrix = $128{\times}128$, thickness = 8 mm). For the simulation, obtained image was multiplied with four linear-array coil sensitivities which were formed of 2D-gaussian distribution and the image was complex white gaussian noise was added. Image processing was separated to apply two methods which were polynomial fitting and filtering according to spatial resolution of sensitivity map and each coil image was subsampled corresponding to reduction factor(r-factor) of 2 and 4. The results were compared to mean value of geomety factor(g-factor) and artifact power(AP) according to r-factor 2 and 4. Our results were represented while changing of spatial resolution of sensitivity map and r-factor, polynomial fit methods were represented the better results compared with general filtering methods. Although our result had limitation of computer simulation study instead of applying to experiment and coil geometric array such as linear, our method may be useful for determination of optimal sensitivity map in a linear coil array.