Abstract
High temperature superconducting (HTS) surface resonators have been used as a low loss RF receiver resonator for improving magnetic resonance imaging image quality. However, the application of HTS surface resonators is significantly limited by their filling factor. To maximize the filling factor, it is desirable to have the RF resonator wrapped around the sample so that more nuclear magnetic dipoles can contribute to the signal. In this study, a whole new Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu2O3 (Bi-2223) superconducting saddle resonator (width of 5 cm and length of 8 cm) was designed for the magnetic resonance image of a mouse's whole body in Bruker 3 T MRI system. The experiment was conducted with a professionally-made copper saddle resonator and a Bi-2223 saddle resonator to show the difference. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with the HTS saddle resonator at 77 K was 2.1 and 2 folds higher than that of the copper saddle resonator at 300 K for a phantom and an in-vivo mice whole body imaging. Testing results were in accordance with predicted ones, and the difference between the predicted SNR gains and measured SNR gains were 2.4%∼2.7%. In summary, with this HTS saddle system, a mouse's whole body can be imaged in one scan and could reach a high SNR due to a 2 folds SNR gain over the professionally-made prototype of copper saddle resonator at 300 K. The use of HTS saddle resonator not only improves SNR but also enables a mouse's whole body screen in one scan.
Highlights
Animal models have always been reasonable analogies for human research
The QL and QUL values of the high temperature superconducting (HTS) and the copper saddle volume resonators were bring into equation (2), the predicted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain with the HTS saddle resonator at 77 K was 2.17 folds higher than that of the copper resonator at 300 K
Phantom imaging Testing results were in accordance with predicted ones, and the difference between the predicted SNR gains and measured SNR gains was 2.4% to 2.7%
Summary
Animal models have always been reasonable analogies for human research. With the increase of spatial resolution, the loss of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in animal MR imaging needs more averaging or higher fields to compensate. Hall et al [1] imaged the back of a human head in 1991. Higher SNR was demonstrated in microscopy by Black et al [2] in 1993 using a yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) resonator. Jing et al [18] investigated the Qs theoretically and verified with experiments. Both of these investigations report that high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape resonators have the potential to obtain a higher SNR than that of copper resonators for imaging
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