An ultrasensitive magnetoelectric sensor system for the quantitative detection of liver iron

Abstract

Ultrasensitive magnetoelectric (ME) sensors have been developed using magnetostrictive/piezoelectric laminate heterostructures. This paper discusses a highly interdisciplinary design of a room temperature biomagnetic liver susceptometry system (BLS) based on the ME sensors. The ME-sensor based BLS maintains the ultrahigh sensitivity to detect the weak AC biomagnetic signals and introduces a low equivalent magnetic noise. The results reveal a “turning point” and successfully indicate the output signals to be linearly responsive to iron concentrations from normal iron level (0.05 mgFe/gliver phantom) to 5 mgFe/gliver phantom iron overload level (100X overdose). Further, the introduction of the water-bag technique shows the promise on the automatic deduction of the background (tissue) signal, enabling an even higher sensitivity and better signal-to-noise (SNR). With these improvements, it becomes feasible to get improved characterization flexibility and the field distribution mapping potential via signal processing from the correlations of multiple sensors in the system. Considering the wide presence of biomagnetic signals in human organs, the potential impact of such biomagnetic devices on medicine and health care could be enormous and far-reaching.

Spatial magnetic source detection based on active mode magnetoelectric gradiometer with 2D and 3D configurations

“…First, we performed angular measurements to determine the angle between the ME gradiometer and magnetic source. In a previous study, it was shown possible to find the distance between the magnetic source and a ME gradiometer that consisted of only two ME sensors in 2D plane [10,11]. However, it is not possible to use this pair of ME sensors to determine the angle between the magnetic source and gradiometer.…”

“…Gradiometers are an important technology, which are widely used in magnetic field detection in open real world environments [10,11]. They allow for the rejection of common mode noises across a baseline [12].…”

A novel magnetoelectric biomagnetic susceptometer on iron level detection with mice tissue in vitro

“…Recently, we reported the development of a room temperature BLS, exploiting the unique feature of the magnetoelectric (ME) composite sensor in detecting weak AC magnetic/electric signals in the presence of strong DC magnetic bias field. [16, 17] It should be noted that the room temperature BLS based on ME sensors is different from several other efforts of room temperature BLS which required precise cancellation of the strong bias magnetic field at the detectors location in order to pick-up very weak biomagnetic signal. [18–20] Hence, the ME-sensor-based BLS technology developed is both “conventional” and “disruptive”.…”

“…As a composite sensor, the sensitivity can be enhanced by optimizing independently the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive components. In this paper, we report that, superior to PZT ceramics that we previously employed, [16, 17] the application of piezoelectric single crystal PIN-PMN-PT to the composite ME sensors enhances the ME coefficient by 10X.…”