Engineering MR Technology for Low-Cost Portable Device Design

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is an invaluable tool used in many fields, and is a mainstay of medical imaging. Conventional MRI scanners are impractical to move and prohibitively expensive, weighing thousands of pounds and costing upwards of a million dollars. Thus, conventional approaches to MRI may be limiting the applications of this important technology. It is possible, using rare-earth magnets (FeNdB), to create a lightweight, portable, and low cost magnet suitable for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and MRI. We have developed two prototype magnets, using the concept of a Halbach array and the NMR-MANDHALAS method described by Peter Bluemler et al. Constructed of 3D-printed parts and identical cubic magnets, the prototypes have a 0.27 T field with a 5 mm spherical region of approximately 300 parts-per-million (ppm) homogeneity and a 0.18 T field with a 5 mm region of 2000 ppm before shimming. Relatively easy to assemble and safe for handling, these prototype magnets have the potential to enable portable MRI and other Magnetic Resonance experiments

Engineering MR Technology for Low-Cost Portable Device Design

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is an invaluable tool used in many fields, and is a mainstay of medical imaging. Conventional MRI scanners are impractical to move and prohibitively expensive, weighing thousands of pounds and costing upwards of a million dollars. Thus, conventional approaches to MRI may be limiting the applications of this important technology. It is possible, using rare-earth magnets (FeNdB), to create a lightweight, portable, and low cost magnet suitable for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and MRI. We have developed two prototype magnets, using the concept of a Halbach array and the NMR-MANDHALAS method described by Peter Bluemler et al. Constructed of 3D-printed parts and identical cubic magnets, the prototypes have a 0.27 T field with a 5 mm spherical region of approximately 300 parts-per-million (ppm) homogeneity and a 0.18 T field with a 5 mm region of 2000 ppm before shimming. Relatively easy to assemble and safe for handling, these prototype magnets have the potential to enable portable MRI and other Magnetic Resonance experiments