Fully integrated probe for proton nuclear magnetic resonance magnetometry

Abstract

In this article, we present the first fully integrated nuclear magnetic resonance probe ever realized. Planar spiral coils, a radio-frequency preamplifier, a mixer, and an audio-frequency amplifier are integrated using a standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology on a single silicon chip of 10 mm2. A 1 mm3 solid sample of cis-polyisoprene, placed over one of the integrated coils, is used as resonating material. The realized integrated probe allows measurements of static magnetic fields from 0.7 to 7 T with a magnetic-field resolution better than 1 ppm/Hz1/2, an absolute accuracy better than 3 ppm, and a spatial resolution of about 1 mm.

Planar microresonators for EPR experiments

“…Such devices were already proposed for NMR [41]. At high frequencies typical for EPR this would be a challenging engineering problem, but it can be solved on the basis of existing Si microtechnology.…”

NMR probes for measuring magnetic fields and field dynamics in MR systems

“…Boero et al (9) described an NMR probe with a solid sample of approximately 1 mm in diameter, integrated on a silicon chip. With this device a field resolution of 1 ppm was reported, requiring signal averaging over 1 s. Both of these values conflict with the temporal and field resolution requirements described above.…”

A Spectral-Scanning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Transceiver

“…The function basically is very similar to , yet it also includes the volume and the frequency of operation such that (6) where is the frequency bandwidth of . It should be recognized that , similar to , is also a deterministic function and independent of function .…”

“…This means that by implementing scaled-down coils which are in intimate proximity of a scaled-down sample and without changing the magnetization strength we increase the by while decreasing by due to volume reduction. This fundamental scaling law is very well understood in small volume NMR [3], [6]- [8] and high-resolution MRI systems [5], [9], [10].…”