Behavioral VHDL-AMS model and experimental validation of a nuclear magnetic resonance sensor

Abstract

This paper describes the development for a model of a nuclear magnetic resonance spiral coil sensor using analog hardware description. Our procedure implies several steps with emphasis on model complexity reduction, identification of critical parameters and validation of experimental measurements. The proposed macro-model permits an extremely fast simulation while providing nearly finite element method accuracy. As a tool for coding the description of system level modeling we use analog hardware description language VHDL-AMS (Ashenden et al. in the system designer’s guide to VHDL-AMS, Morgan Kauffmann, 2002). In order to obtain the behavioral computation results, SYSTEM VISION simulation environment from Mentor Graphics® was employed. In our proposed model, the different parts of the sensor and the different effects involved (electrical parameters, physical and magnetic coupling, loss effects) can be modeled within the same tool, together with the sensor environment: electrical command and detection circuit, time dependent magnetic field, and so on.