A simulation study of excitation coil design in single-sided mpi scanner for human body application

Abstract

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI), a tomographic imaging method has been introduced for 3D imaging of human body with some potential applications such as magnetic hyperthermia and cancer imaging. It involves three important elements: tracer development using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), hardware realization (scanner using excitation and pickup coils), and image reconstruction optimization. Their combination will produce a high quality of image taken from any biological tissue in the human body based on the secondary magnetic field signal from the magnetized MNPs that are injected into human body. A homogeneous and adequate magnetic field strength from an excitation coil is needed to enhance the quality of the secondary signal. However, the complex surface topography of human body and physical properties of an excitation coil influence the strength and the homogeneity of the magnetic field generation at the MNPs. Therefore, this work focused on finding alternative design of excitation coil used in single sided MPI to produce up to 2 mT with high homogeneity of field distribution in the MNPs at the varied depth of 10 to 30 mm under the excitation coil. We proposed several designs with variation in physical properties and coil arrangement based on simulation study carried out by using Ansys Maxwell.