• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.30-34
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• 2021

Superconducting magnets have paved the way for opening new horizons in designing an electromagnet of a high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. In the first phase of the superconducting MRI magnet era, low-temperature superconductor (LTS) has played a key role in constructing the main magnet of an MRI device. The highest magnetic resonance (MR) field of 11.7 T was indeed reached using LTS, which is generated by the well-known Iseult project. However, as the limit of current carrying capacity and mechanical robustness under a high field environment is revealed, it is widely believed that commercial LTS wires would be challenging to manufacture a high field (>10 T) MRI magnet. As a result, high-temperature superconductor together with the conducting cooling approach has been spotlighted as a promising alternative to the conventional LTS. In 2020, the Korean government launched a national project to develop an HTS magnet for a high field MRI magnet as an extent of this interest. We have performed a design study of a 7 T 320 mm winding bore HTS MRI magnet, which may be the ultimate goal of this project. Thus, in this paper, design study results are provided. Electromagnetic design and analysis were performed considering the requirements of central magnetic field and spatial field uniformity.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.141-151
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• 2016

Purpose: Advances of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), especially that of the Ultra-High Field (UHF) MRI will be reviewed. Materials and Methods: Diffusion MRI data was obtained from a healthy adult young male of age 30 using a 7.0T research MRI scanner (Magnetom, Siemens) with 40 mT/m maximum gradient field. The specific imaging parameters used for the data acquisition were a single shot DW echo planar imaging. Results: Three areas of the imaging experiments are focused on for the study, namely the anatomy, angiography, and tractography. Conclusion: It is envisioned that, in near future, there will be more 7.0T MRIs for brain research and explosive clinical application research will also be developed, for example in the area of connectomics in neuroscience and clinical neurology and neurosurgery.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.61-63
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• 2007

In high field (> 3 T) MR imaging, the magnetic field inhomogeneity in the target object increases due to the nonuniform electro-magnetic characteristics and relatively high Larmor frequency. Especially in the body imaging, the effect causes more serious problems resulting in locally high SAR(Specific Absorption Ratio). In this paper, we propose an optimized parallel-transmission RF coil element structure and show the utility of the coil by FDTD simulations to overcome the unwanted effects. Three types of TX coil elements are tested to maximize the efficiency and their driving patterns(amplitude and phase) optimized to have adequate field homogeneity, proper SAR level, and sufficient field strength. For the proposed coil element of 25 cm ${\times}$ 8 cm loop structure with 12 channels for a 3.0 T body coil, the 73% field non-uniformity without optimization was reduced to about 26% after optimization of driving patterns. The experimental as well as simulation results show the utility of the proposed parallel driving scheme is clinically useful for (ultra) high field MRI.

• 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

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.96-100
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• 2012

In high static field magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) systems, $B_0$ fields of 7 T and 9.4 T, the impressed RF field shows larger inhomogeneity than in clinical MRI systems with B0 fields of 1.5 T and 3.0 T. In multi-channel RF coils, the magnitude and phase of the input to each coil element can be controlled independently to reduce the non-uniformity of the impressed RF $B_1^+$ field. The convex optimization technique has been used to obtain the optimum excitation parameters with iterative solutions for homogeneity in a selected ROI(Region of Interest). To demonstrate the technique, the multichannel transmission line coil was modeled together with a human head phantom at 400 MHz for the 9.4 T MRI system and $B_1^+$ fields are obtained. In this paper, all the optimized $B_1^+$ in each isolated ROIs are combined to achieve significantly improved homogeneity over the entire field of view. The simulation results for 9.4 T MRI systems are discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.565-573
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• 2021

The spatial distribution of electromagnetic fields in the human body can be adjusted by using high dielectric materials. This method has a complementary compared to other methods. However, it can be used as a powerful dielectric shimming tool in certain applications. It can be manufactured in a geometrically free shape and a pad manufactured according to the purpose can be applied without any change of the system. Especially in ultrahigh magnetic field (UHF) MRI, the clinical high dielectric pad used to increase the intensity of the transmit (B1+) and receive (B1-) fields, which has low sensitivity due to the high operating frequency, has great potential. In addition, there are few studies applied to UHF MRI. Therefore, in this study, a high dielectric material pad made of calcium titanate suspension was developed in the laboratory. And the signal increase of clinically useful images was confirmed in various protocols of UHF 7T MRI.

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.47-49
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• 2002

At present, the trend of magnetic field strength in MRI system is dramatically changing. In early 70, the only low field (<0.5T) was developed. It was technically difficult to develop the high field system. At that time, people believed that the fine MR imaging could not be obtained in the high field MR system due to the magnetic susceptibility effect. However, 1.5T system was evolved at the end of 80, and used for clinical usage. Thus, it was proved that the signal to noise ratio (SNR) could be greatly contribute to enhance the image quality. And, the results of functional MRI and MR spectroscopy could be improved in the higher field MR system. So, 8T system was eventually developed in Ohio State University Hospital at the end of 90. Therefore, there is no doubt that the system with the ultra high magnetic field strength will be developed near future in 21 century.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.10b
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• pp.486-488
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• 2008

300 MHz가 넘는 초고자장 MRI에서는 송신 또는 수신 RF Magnetic Field 의 불균일도가 심해져서 이를 개선하기 위한 많은 방법들이 제안되고 있다. 그 중 가장 대표적인 방법은 $4{\sim}32$ 채널의 Transmit Array의 각 채널에 인가되는 전압과 위상을 변화시켜 RF Magnetic Field의 불균일도를 개선하는 방법이다. 본 논문에서는 Transmit Array 내부에서 머리위치의 변화에 따라 RF Magnetic Field ($B_1$ Field) 의 불균일도가 많이 변화하며 이에 따라 RF 송신용 전압과 위상의 Pattern을 새로 최적화 해야 함을 확인하였다. 또한 RF field Mapping을 하기 위해서 Composite RF Sequence를 사용한 Rapid Sequence의 사용과 채널 전압과 위상을 최적화하기 위해서 일반적인 Iterative 방식보다 간편하고 빠른 Target Method를 제안하였다. Driving 패턴의 최적화는 Complex 행렬식을 사용했으며 RF Magnetic Field ($B_1$ Field) 분포는 FDTD 방식으로 계산하였다.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.44 no.4 s.316
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• pp.55-60
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• 2007

In high field (> 3 T) MR imaging, the magnetic field inhomogeneity in the target object increases due to the nonuniform electro-magnetic characteristics of the relatively high RF frequency. Especially in the body imaging, the effect causes more serious problems resulting in locally high SAR(Specific Absorption Ratio). In this paper, we propose an optimized parallel-transmission RF coil and show the utility of the coil by FDTD simulations to overcome the unwanted effects. Three types of TX coil elements are tested to maximize the efficiency and their driving patterns(amplitude and phase) optimized to have adequate field homogeneity, proper SAR level, and sufficient field strength. For the proposed coil element of $25cm{\times}8cm$ loop structure with 12 channels for a 3.0 T body coil, the field non-uniformity of more than 70% without optimization was reduced to about 26 % after the optimization of driving patterns. The experimental as well as simulation results show that the proposed parallel driving scheme is clinically useful for (ultra) high field MRI.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.267-271
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• 2008

The RF shimming technique has been used to improve the transmit RF field homogeneity in highfield MRI. In the RF shimming technique, the amplitude and phase of the driving currents in each coil element are optimized to get homogenous flip angle or uniform image intensity. The inductive and capacitive coupling between the coil elements may degrade the RF field homogeneity if not taken into account in the optimization procedure. In this paper, we have analyzed the coupling effects on the RF shimming using a sixteen-element TEM RF coil model operating at 300 MHz. We have found that the coupling effects on the RF shimming can be reduced by putting high dielectric material between the active rung and the shield.