The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Nov. 15, 1994

Filed:

Nov. 30, 1992
Applicant:
Inventors:

Michael L Buess, Alexandria, VA (US);

Allen N Garroway, Fort Washington, MD (US);

James P Yesinowski, Fort Washington, MD (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01R / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
324307 ; 324300 ;
Abstract

Acoustic ringing and adverse effects from variations in the NQR detection of explosives and narcotics are minimized or eliminated. A specimen is irradiated with a modified steady state steady state free precession (SSFP) pulse sequence which combines a phase-alternated pulse sequence (PAPS) with a non-phase-alternated pulse sequence (NPAPS). The resulting signals from the PAPS and NPAS may then be coadded to cancel out the FID contributions to the signals. By canceling out the FID contributions to the signals, the effects of probe ringing and other extraneous responses, as well as the effect of temperature variation, are minimized or removed. The present method is especially effective in the detection of explosives and narcotics having .sup.14 N or .sup.35,37 Cl nuclei. A steady state free precession pulse which is especially useful with the method of the present invention is the strong off-resonance comb (SORC). In another embodiment of the invention, the effects of probe ringing can also be minimized or removed by repeating the detection procedure at a frequency which is sufficiently off-resonance so that only frequency independent effects, such as probe-ringing, can be observed.


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