General Electric Company

Ford Motor Company Limited

General Electric Corporation Gmbh

Ralph S Hashoian

Robert Steven Stormont

John F Kennedy

Kenneth W Belt

Perry S Frederick

Randall Henry Buchwald

Robert W Newman

Robert W Prost

A radio frequency coil for an magnetic resonance imaging system is integrated into a disposable surgical drape to permit imaging during a surgical procedure. The drape is formed by two sheets of flexible material with an adhesive applied to an exposed surface for adhering the drape to skin of a patient. A flexible radio frequency coil, tuned to the Larmor frequency, is sealed between the two sheets and surrounds an area of the drape through which an incision is made during surgery on the patient. A layer of material that is resistant to penetration by surgical instruments covers and protects the radio frequency coil during surgery.

Surgical drape with integral MRI coil

A high-pass bird cage coil serves as the whole-body RF coil in an NMR system. This coil is detuned when other RF coils are used to transmit or receive during a pulse sequence. This detuning is accomplished by detuning circuits that contain pin diodes which shunt the tuning capacitors in the bird cage coil.

Dynamically detuned NMR field coil

A dual frequency NMR coil pair is comprised of two individual coils tuned to separate resonant frequencies. Each coil is formed into approximately the same shape by a conductive loop which follows a serpentine path to define an inner area and a plurality of outer lobes. The two individual coils are positioned in close proximity overlying each other, but rotated with respect to each other such that the outer lobes of the two respective coils are interleaved, i.e. not overlaying each other. As a result, mutual loading between the two individual coils is essentially eliminated, permitting dual frequency operation with minimal degradation of Q or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in either coil.

Dual frequency NMR surface coil pair with interleaved lobe areas

A composite core transformer has a high permeability segment and a low permeability segment such that a saturable portion of the core is used to control RF energy coupled from a receiving antenna to a radio receiver. Transformer input and output windings are wound on the low permeability segment of the composite core. A control winding is wound on the high permeability segment of the core and receives an automatic gain control signal from a radio receiver. The resulting radio receiver has high resistance to overload and an extended dynamic range of automatic gain control.

Radio-frequency transformer providing automatic gain control and

There is provided a power source for continuously energizing electrically isolated devices used to monitor the physiological state of a subject undergoing an examination in an NMR scanner having a magnet, RF and gradient coils. The power source is made up of a first element for generating energy of one type and a second element for receiving this energy and converting it to a second energy type used to energize the electrically isolated devices. The first and second elements are operatively coupled to one another through an electrically isolated medium to permit continuous transfer of energy from the first to the second element and to reject interference due to the NMR apparatus subsystems. In one embodiment the first element may be an array of light-emitting diodes, while the second element may be an array of photovoltaic cells. In another embodiment, the first and second elements may be ultrasonic transducers coupled through air or a ceramic substrate.

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Brookfield, WI, United States of America

Ralph S Hashoian