Low-power MRI magnet design in IEEE Trans. Magn.
F. Florio, G. Sinha and R. Sundararaman, “Designing High-Accuracy Permanent Magnets for Low-Power Magnetic Resonance Imaging”, IEEE Trans. Magn. 54, 1 (2018)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, commonly referred to as MRI, is a highly versatile imaging technique which utilizes magnetic fields to excite and detect no-zero spin nuclei such as that of hydrogen. Due to its non-invasive nature, MRI enables in-vivo tomography of internal organs and structure and thus has become commonplace in the diagnostic tool-kit of modern medicine. In traditional MRI devices a magnetic field is produced via electromagnet, requiring a large and constant power supply. Beyond the power consumption, reliance on electromagnetism results in devices which are often large (requiring a fully devoted room for operation) and noisy. Here we present an MRI design which instead utilizes permanent magnets to produce its field, avoiding the power consumption and noise issues entirely. Further, the use of permanent magnets allows our design to be scaled down, potentially allowing for portable applications not currently feasible with traditional devices. Overall the use of a permanent magnet scheme, as opposed to electromagnetic, could allow for a more cost effective, energy efficient, and user friendly device, and opens the door for further application of the technology via portability.