An integrated microfluidic cryo-cooled planar coil system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Author

Koo, Chiwan ; Feng, Ke ; Park, Jaewon ; McDougall, Mary P. ; Wright, Steven M. ; Han, Arum

Author_Institution

Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

24-28 Jan. 2010

Firstpage

1011

Lastpage

1014

Abstract

An integrated microfluidic cryo-cooled planar radiofrequency (RF) coil system has been developed to enhance the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of high resolution and ultra-fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiments. The developed system can cool MR planar coils to liquid nitrogen temperature (-196Â°C) without freezing the target samples on the imaging surface, thereby maintaining minimal distance between the coils and the samples. The planar coils were fabricated on a 0.5 mm thick poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate by using microfabrication technologies with a poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic channel for liquid nitrogen cooling. The average signal to noise ratio (SNR) enhancement measured with imaging was 1.51 Â± 0.09 times.

Keywords

bioMEMS; biomedical MRI; coils; cryogenic electronics; microfabrication; microfluidics; polymers; integrated microfluidic cryo-cooled planar radiofrequency coil system; liquid nitrogen temperature; microfabrication; microfluidic channel; poly (dimethylsiloxane); poly(methyl methacrylate); signal to noise ratio; size 0.5 mm; temperature -196 degC; ultrafast magnetic resonance imaging; Coils; High-resolution imaging; Image resolution; Magnetic resonance imaging; Microfluidics; Nitrogen; Radio frequency; Signal resolution; Signal to noise ratio; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2010 IEEE 23rd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Wanchai, Hong Kong

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5761-8

Electronic_ISBN

1084-6999

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2010.5442380

Filename

5442380