Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Paulus Cornelius Hendrikus Adrianus Haans

Johan Samuel Van Den Brink

Marc Paul Saes

Marinus Johannes Adrianus Maria Van Helvoort

Cornelis Leonardus Gerardus Ham

Gosta J Ehnholm

Robert Paul Kleihorst

Frederik Visser

Laurens Cornelis Van Leeuwen

Diana Maria Francisca Geraats

Marinus Johannes Adrianus Maria Helvoort

Johan Mathieu Alfons Helsen

Leo De Vreede

A magnetic resonance (MR) systemincludes at least one cable () that has at least one optic fiber component (C,E,B,B) and an optical monitoring unit () in communication with the at least one optic fiber component (C,E,B,B). The optical monitoring unit () is configured to determine temperatures at each of a plurality of positions along the at least one optic fiber component (C,E,B,B). The optical monitoring unit () is further configured to halt an operation of the MR system () in response to at least one determined temperature. In accordance with the invention, the temperature of one or more cable traps forming part of the cable can be monitored and a faulty cable trap can be detected.

MRI involving a distributed sensor to monitor the temperature and/or strain of coil cables and traps

It is proposed herein to improve the specifications of a low-noise amplifier (LNA) by integrating it in a chip. In order to cover a range of operating frequencies using a single chip, the integrated-circuit amplifier proposed herein comprises an input port configured to receive a magnetic resonance (MR) signal from a radio-frequency (RF) coil, one or more LNAs configured to amplify the received MR signal, and an output port configured to output the amplified MR signal from the one or more LNAs. The operating frequency of the RF coil depends on the field strength. The matching circuit, if present, needs to be tuned to operate at the operating frequency of the RF coil, and depends on the component values in the loop, thus on loop size. In contrast, the proposed integrated-circuit amplifier is capable of directly connecting to RF coils with different loop sizes, without the need for a matching circuit.

Magnetic resonance integrated-circuit low-noise amplifier

A radio frequency antenna comprising a resonant pickup circuit () arranged to pick up a magnetic resonance signal, an analog-to-digital converter () arranged to convert the magnetic resonance signal to digital data, and a frequency converter arranged to convert a primary band of frequencies of the digital data. By upshifting the frequency of the transmitted bit-stream, it is possible to RF-trap the transmission channel () by simple high-pass filtering techniques. In case the transmitted bit pattern has frequency components that approach the resonance frequency, an encoding technique like Manchester encoding can be used to eliminate unwanted signals.

RF antenna with integrated electronics

The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging system, to a magnetic resonance imaging method for operating a magnetic resonance imaging system and to a computer program for operating a magnetic resonance imaging system. In order to considerably reduce the number of cabling in a magnetic resonance imaging system a magnetic resonance imaging system () is suggested, the system comprising: an examination zone () arranged to receive a body for examination; magnetic field generating means () for generating a magnetic field in the examination zone (); a receiving unit () located in the examination zone () or in the vicinity of the examination zone (); an interface unit () located in the examination zone () or in the vicinity of the examination zone (), and arranged separately from the receiving unit (); and a signal processing unit () disposed at a location () remote from the receiving unit () and the interface unit (); wherein the receiving unit () comprising a receiver () adapted to receive a spin resonance signal generated in the examination zone (), and a transmitter () adapted to transmit the spin resonance signal to the interface unit (); and wherein the interface unit () comprises a receiver () for receiving the spin resonance signals, an analog to digital converter () adapted to generate a digital signal in response to the received spin resonance signal, and a transmitter () for transmitting the digitized signal to the signal processing unit ().

MRI system comprising a scan room interface for A/D-conversion of MR signals between a receiver coil unit and a remote signal processing unit

The proposed MRI apparatus provides a solution to the problem of a limited number of receiver channels. The main idea is to make use of the imaging parameters when selecting and/or combining the RF signals of at least two RF coils into separate receiver channels. Such an imaging parameter may be, for example, the phase encoding direction.

MRI apparatus and method for selectively routing/diverting and combining signals along different paths

MR coil module

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Paulus Cornelius Hendrikus Adrianus Haans