FENCE

FENCE is an open-source hardware solution to suppress electromagnetic interference (EMI) in low-field MRI systems operating outside Faraday-shielded rooms. The shield is based on the principle that EMI couples primarily capacitively from the body to the RF coil; FENCE blocks this path using a flexible PCB placed inside the coil, leaving inductive MRI signal detection unaffected.

This version features 1 mm wide traces with 1 mm gaps. The PCBs can be cut to size and interconnected to fit different coil geometries, making it straightforward to retrofit existing low-field RF coils without mechanical redesign.

Design files are provided in KiCAD 9.0 format alongside exported GERBER files ready for PCB production. In phantom experiments FENCE achieved up to 9× SNR improvement; in-vivo head imaging demonstrated up to 2× SNR improvement across diverse electromagnetic environments, with only ~18% reduction in coil Q factor.