Application
Open source software and hardware project of a transmitter and RF amplifier for traditional and rotating magnetic resonance imaging
Contributors
Blücher Christian1, Han Haopeng1, Hoffmann Werner1, Seemann Reiner2, Seifert Frank2, Niendorf Thoralf1,3,4, Hasselwander Christopher5, Grissom William5, Danny de Gans6, Winter Lukas2
Estimated cost
~1000€ (SDR)
~2000€ (RF power amplifier)
Progress
CERN OHL v1.2, prototype
The spectrometer or software defined radio is capable of producing arbitrary shaped RF-pulses, un-/blanking the RFPA, recording acquired data and controlling a rotating
gradient field. Pulse length, amplitude, readout-length and –delay can be chosen freely.
The RFPA successfully amplied rect- and sinc-pulses generated by the spectrometer. A signal amplitude of 500mV at the input leads to an output voltage level of 200V which corresponds to a total gain factor of 52dB and a power level of 800W in a 50Ω system. The RFPA shows good linearity for the investigated frequency range f=1.8-54MHz (B =0.042-1.27T) with a maximum power output of around 1kW peak power.
The whole system occupies a volume of around (50x30x35)cm3.
Publications
Blücher C, Han H, Hoffmann W, Seemann R, Seifert F, Niendorf T, and Winter L, “COSI Transmit: Open Source Soft- and Hardware Transmission System for traditional and rotating MR”, Proc ISMRM, 2017, #184
Affiliations
1Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.), Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany
2Physikalich-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany
3Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint cooperation between the Charité medical faculty and the MDC-Berlin
4MRI.TOOLS GmbH, Berlin, Germany
5Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA
6Technical University Delft, Delft, Netherlands