Field-Cycling Add-on Coils
In a project funded by an EPSRC Follow-on Fund grant, we investigated the feasibility of add-on hardware to allow FFC-MRI to be performed on some existing commercial MRI scanners. The type of technology we investigated could allow field-cycling on vertical-field, open-geometry magnets, by the use of a "pancake" field-offset insert coil. The figure below illustrates this concept.
| Sketch of a "pancake" field-offset coil inside a vertical-field, open-geometry MRI system. |  |
Together with project partners Tesla Engineering Ltd. we produced a prototype field-offset magnet coil and successfully tested it in our 59 mT vertical-field MRI system. Although this is not an open-geometry MRI system, it nevertheless served as an excellent test-bed for the offset-coil add-on concept.
| Prototype "pancake" field-offset coil, ready for insertion into bore of 59 mT vertical-field MRI system. Water cooling pipes and electrical connections can be seen. Solenoidal RF coil in cylindrical shield sitting on top of offset coil is for test purposes only. |  |