Plurality Of Coils Research Articles

5382904 Structured coil electromagnets for magnetic resonance imaging and method for fabricating the same

Superconducting electromagnets suitable for use in the NMR tomography of human organs, and a method of making the same, are disclosed. Each of the disclosed electromagnets are constructed according to a structured coils methodology, where the desired field at locations within the volume of interest and, optionally, outside of the location of the coils is selected; the current magnitude and polarity for a plurality of coil elements locations are then optimized, by way of a computer program, to provide the desired field magnitude at the locations. The magnet construction results in a plurality of coils of varying current polarity, and of irregular shape and size, optimized to provide the uniform field. Magnets may be constructed according to the present invention which provide suitably highly uniform and high magnitude DC magnetic fields at volumes of interest which may be within or outside of the magnet bore, enabling the MRI of human organs without requiring whole body insertion of the patient into the magnet bore.