Physicists Build Unique Antennas That Improve MRI Quality And Safety
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Scanners applied in research use not just one antenna that emits and receives the signal, but several of them, which can cause severe burns to inner tissues and organs. Thus, researchers are forced to power scanners with less voltage, which negatively affects the quality of their studies. Now, [ITMO University] physicists, together with their colleagues from the M-Cube consortium, have created the first ever leaky-wave antennas for MRI scanners. The device can conduct body organ diagnostics without risks for patient health while also raising the quality of images acquired in research scanners.
[...] "Our idea is that we have many small antennas connected in series with a wave propagating through them. Each element emits a portion of the power, so that together they form the total radiation. Thanks to the method of leaky waves (which are non-resonant), it is possible to reduce the heating and make the scanning safe for patients," explains Georgiy Solomakha, a Ph.D. student at ITMO's Faculty of Physics and Engineering and main author of the paper.
wikipedia article for MRI
Journal Reference:
G. Solomakha, J. T. Svejda, C. van Leeuwen, et al. A self-matched leaky-wave antenna for ultrahigh-field magnetic resonance imaging with low specific absorption rate [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20708-w)
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