Team presentation
Team Leaders: Michel Luong / Cyril Poupon
Permanent staff:
- Elodie Georget
- Edouard Chazel
- Eric Giacomini
- Guillaume Ferrand
- Matthieu Baudrier
Thematic area of research
The mission of the RF coils team is twofold. The team mainly provides design and manufacturing of new RF coils for high fields MRI: static magnetic field higher than 7 teslas for humans and small animals. For the latter, the term of probe is also used insofar as the effect of propagation is negligible in a small volume. Maintenance and characterization of commercial RF coils form the second component of the mission.
The team includes five research engineers and two technicians from both I2BM and Irfu institutes. The development of RF coils for human aims at obtaining a homogeneous spin excitation in transmission while minimizing the specific absorption rate (SAR), namely the electromagnetic power dissipated in the organic tissues. As a second but not less important objective, an RF coil must deliver the highest possible signal to noise ratio in reception, a necessary condition to obtain high resolution images. The team holds 5 patents in this area of research. The development of probes for small animals provides the best solutions to the specificity of scientific research programs, particularly in terms of studied nuclei and ergonomics.
The team makes use of modeling and numerical simulation tools such as HFSS (Ansys) and Microwave Studio (CST) for the design of RF coils. The routing of the electronic circuits is carried out with Proteus and Target CAD tools. In-house production of printed circuits is delivered by a mechanical milling machine and components soldering is usually operated in a reflow oven. More complex circuits are sub-contracted in the industry. Finally, the team also has access to the mechanical workshop of the NeuroSpin center.
Parallel transmit RF coil produced in the framework of the Astre project. It is equipped with 12 transmit and 22 receive elements. (PI: Alexis Amadon. Design and manufacturing: M. Luong, E. Giacomini, G. Ferrand, M.-F. Hang, J. Bernard, E. Chazel).
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