Passive shimming for the 9.4 T whole-body MRI superconducting magnet

Abstract

A superconducting magnet with a warm-bore size of 800 mm and a center magnetic field of 9.4 T for the whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system was developed in IEECAS, China. To achieve a highly homogeneous magnetic field over the 400 mm diameter of spherical volume (DSV), both active shimming and passive shimming techniques were employed. This paper mainly focuses on the implementation of passive shimming for the 9.4 T MRI magnet system. After four iterations, we were able to achieve peak-to-peak and root mean square field homogeneities over the DSV at 3.05 and 0.94 ppm, respectively. In addition, this paper analyzes the electromagnetic forces and system errors of passive shimming for ultra-high fields, providing valuable insights into MRI magnet engineering.