A hybrid passive shimming method applied to the design of a unilateral NMR magnet

Abstract

A combination of passive shimming procedures is employed in the design of a unilateral Nuclear Magnetic Reso- nance magnet. The first shimming procedure used movable permanent magnets to correct the inhomogeneity of the B0 field to a relatively low level. In the second shimming procedure, the small iron pieces were used as shimming units, and their sizes and locations were predicted by using an integer programming method. Finally, the distribution of the shimming pieces was optimized and a special mathematic model was established. This hybrid technique provides a computational algorithm for opti- mizing the B0 homogeneity and for minimizing the number of iron shimming pieces. A prototype unilateral NMR magnet has been built with this method. The B0 field measurement results were compared before and after the shimming. Employing this hybrid shimming method improved the uniformity of the B0 field from 4200 ppm to 796 ppm with only one iteration.