Computational and Experimental Study of Gradiometer Coil Sensor Design for Single-Sided Magnetic Particle Imaging

Abstract

This paper presents the design and construction of an induction coil sensor, suitable for single-sided Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) scanner. Tomographic images of the magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) used as tracer need to be formed from the voltage induced in the pickup coil as a result of the particles’ magnetization response when excited by a superimposed magnetic field from the excitation and selection fields. The coil sensor is looped in the form of the solenoid (Maxwell arrangement) and inserted into the coaxial arrangement of the excitation and selection field coils to form the single-sided scanner geometry. A first-order gradiometer is realized by winding two identical coils, each coil having 208 turns, with a baseline distance of 30 mm. Simulation and experimental results revealed that the induced voltage is directly proportional to the excitation field, and inversely proportional to the distance away from the excitation coil. Results obtained showed that the designed gradiometer pickup coil is sufficient for single-sided MPI scanner, to be applied in the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for breast cancer detection.