Patents Examined by Dixomara Vargas
  • Patent number: 11428762
    Abstract: Various methods and systems are provided for a flexible, lightweight, and lowcost radio frequency (RF) coil of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. In one example, a RF coil assembly for an MRI system includes a distributed capacitance loop portion comprising at least three distributed capacitance conductor wires encapsulated and separated by a dielectric material, a coupling electronics portion including a preamplifier, and a coil-interfacing cable extending between the coupling electronics portion and an interfacing connector of the RF coil assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Victor Taracila, Robert Steven Stormont, Fraser John Laing Robb, Aleksey Zemskov
  • Patent number: 11428763
    Abstract: A planar inverse anapole microresonator includes: an anapolic substrate; an anapolic conductor that includes a first and second inverse anapolic pattern; each inverse anapolic pattern including: a semi annular arm that terminates in a first arm tendril and a second arm tendril; and a medial arm terminating at a medial tip, and the medial tip of the first inverse anapolic pattern opposes the medial tip of the second inverse anapolic pattern, such that the medial tip of the first inverse anapolic pattern is separated from the medial tip of the second inverse anapolic pattern by a medial gap, and the planar inverse anapole microresonator produces a magnetic field region that concentrates a magnetic field localized between the medial tip of the first inverse anapolic pattern and the medial tip of the second inverse anapolic pattern in response to the planar inverse anapole microresonator being subjected to microwave radiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
    Inventors: Veronika Ann Szalai, Amit Kumar Agrawal, Nandita Abhyankar
  • Patent number: 11408951
    Abstract: A head coil apparatus for MRI of a person's head includes a transmit coil array device generating RF fields for spin state excitation to the head, wherein the transmit coil array device comprises multiple transmit coil loops decoupled from each other and arranged on a transmit coil array carrier surrounding an inner head coil space for receiving the head; a receive coil array device for receiving RF resonance signals from the head; a RF shield surrounding the transmit coil array device and the receive coil array device; and a head coil window providing a viewing port through the RF shield and transmit coil array device. The head coil window has a longitudinal extension and an azimuthal extension, the transmit coil loops includes a window coil loop surrounding the head coil window, and the coil loop is decoupled from a neighbouring transmit coil loop by sharing a common loop conductor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: MR CoilTech Limited
    Inventor: Shajan Gunamony
  • Patent number: 11402210
    Abstract: A method for ascertaining a change in a spatial orientation of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) gyroscope having a diamond doped with color centers includes applying a static external magnetic field in a first direction, polarizing a nuclear spin of the color centers of the diamond in a direction of the static magnetic field, and generating a cophasal Larmor precession of the nuclear spin of the color centers of the diamond through application of an alternating magnetic field in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, whose frequency corresponds to the Larmor frequency of the nuclear spin of the color centers. The method further includes measuring a phase of the Larmor precession, and ascertaining a change in the spatial orientation in a plane perpendicular to the first direction based on a deviation of the precession frequency from an expected value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Robert Roelver, Andreas Brenneis, Felix Michael Stuerner, Janine Riedrich-Moeller, Tino Fuchs
  • Patent number: 11402451
    Abstract: Systems and methods include generation of a source optical signal outside of a radiofrequency-shielded cabin based on a reference electrical clock signal, transmission of the source optical signal into the radiofrequency-shielded cabin via optical media, generation of an electrical clock signal based on the source optical signal within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin, jitter cleaning of the electrical clock signal within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin to generate a jitter-cleaned electrical clock signal based on an average frequency of the electrical clock signal and a jitter of a magnetically-compatible jitter cleaner oscillator, and transmission of the jitter-cleaned electrical clock signal to a plurality of positron emission tomography scanner detectors disposed within the radiofrequency-shielded cabin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Philip Moor, Nan Zhang
  • Patent number: 11397230
    Abstract: Methods for correcting a non-uniform power response of a radiofrequency (“RF”) transmit coil used in magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) are described. Transmit power response data for an RF transmit coil are processed to compute RF amplitude scaling factors for the RF transmit coil as a function of transmit frequency offset. The RF amplitude scaling factors can be used to correct transmitted RF power, and thus flip angle, to be more uniform over a range of transmit frequency offsets, as may be encountered when imaging with lower field MRI systems or MRI systems with high strength or asymmetric gradients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: SYNAPTIVE MEDICAL INC.
    Inventors: Jeff Alan Stainsby, Chad Tyler Harris, Andrew Thomas Curtis, Alexander Gyles Panther
  • Patent number: 11397275
    Abstract: A distributed device and method for detecting groundwater based on nuclear magnetic resonance are provided. The device includes an excitation apparatus, multiple polarization apparatuses, an aerial reception apparatus, and a control apparatus. The aerial reception apparatus includes an array cooled coil sensor. For each of the multiple polarization apparatuses, a position analysis module determines, together with a second position analysis module of the polarization apparatus, a position of the array cooled coil sensor relative to a polarization coil in the polarization apparatus. A polarization transmitter in the polarization apparatus switches to a mode of waiting for output in a case that the array cooled coil sensor is in coverage of the polarization coil. The polarization transmitter in the polarization apparatus remains in a standby mode in a case that the array cooled coil sensor is beyond coverage of the polarization coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: JILIN UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Tingting Lin, Kun Zhou, Chao Chen, Pengfei Wang, Yang Zhang, Ling Wan
  • Patent number: 11397232
    Abstract: In a method for determining the T1 time and also of at least one tissue proportion per voxel in a predetermined volume segment of an examination object with a magnetic resonance (MR) sequence: a radio frequency (RF) preparation pulse is radiated in; a readout module is repeatedly run after the RF preparation pulse to acquire MR data; and the T1 time and the at least one tissue proportion per voxel is determined as a function of the MR data. The readout module can include: an RF excitation pulse at a beginning of the readout module, a phase encoding gradient, and a number of readout gradients (3a-3g) for acquiring the MR data. During running of the readout module, the MR data may be acquired, at least at times, with more than two echoes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventor: Marcel Dominik Nickel
  • Patent number: 11385307
    Abstract: A resonant coil system with improved sensitivity and signal-to-noise performance is described. A primary coil is tuned to a first resonance frequency and inductively coupled to a secondary coil that is separately tuned to a second resonance frequency. The primary and secondary coils form a resonant system with a resonance frequency that is a function of the primary and secondary coil resonance frequencies. The resonance frequency of the coil system is less than both the primary resonance frequency and the secondary resonance frequency. The mutual inductance between the two coils is high and the resonance frequency of the coil system's parallel mode is well separated from that of the anti-parallel mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: The Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard R. Mett, James S. Hyde, Jason W. Sidabras
  • Patent number: 11382526
    Abstract: A system for generating a traveling field free line, traveling along a propagation direction different from the orientation of said traveling field free line, said system comprising at least a first and a second coil assembly, wherein said first coil assembly is configured for generating a first stationary field free line at a first location when a current is flowing in the first coil assembly and the second coil assembly is current free, and wherein said second coil assembly is configured for generating a second stationary field free line at a second location, when a current is flowing in the second coil assembly and the first coil assembly is current free. The system further comprises a controller configured for driving the first and second coil assemblies with corresponding driving currents synchronized with each other, such that said traveling field free line travels along the propagation direction from a first location towards a second location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
    Inventors: Patrick Vogel, Martin Rückert, Volker Christian Behr
  • Patent number: 11378639
    Abstract: Some implementations provide a system that includes: a housing having a bore in which a subject to be image is placed; a main magnet configured to generate a volume of magnetic field within the bore, the volume of magnetic field having inhomogeneity below a defined threshold; one or more gradient coils configured to linearly vary the volume of magnetic field as a function of spatial location; one or more pulse generating coils configured to generate and apply radio frequency (RF) pulses to the volume of magnetic field in sequence to scan the portion of the subject; one or more shim gradient coils configured to perturb a spatial distribution of the linearly varying volume of magnetic field; and a control unit configured to operate the gradient coils, pulse generating coils, and shim gradient coils such that only the user-defined region within the volume of magnetic field is imaged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: SYNAPTIVE MEDICAL INC.
    Inventors: Jeff Alan Stainsby, Chad Tyler Harris
  • Patent number: 11372065
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards a radio frequency (RF) coil comprising a first combination coil and a second combination coil. The first combination coil comprises a first resonant coil and a first resonant shield coupled inductively or by a capacitor, and the first combination coil has a first resonant frequency and a second resonant frequency. The second combination coil comprises a second resonant coil and a second resonant shield coupled inductively or by a capacitor, and the second combination coil has a third resonant frequency and a fourth resonant frequency. The first and second resonant coils are inductively coupled to each other and respectively to the second and first resonant shields. The first and third resonant working frequencies are the same, and the second and fourth resonant isolation frequencies are such that inductive coupling between the first and second resonant coils is negated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Quality Electrodynamics, LLC
    Inventors: Xiaoyu Yang, Tsinghua Zheng
  • Patent number: 11369317
    Abstract: In a method for correcting the interference in respiratory navigation, transmitting, during magnetic resonance scanning, a respiratory signal generated by a radio frequency signal generator to a human body; acquiring, as a measured respiratory signal, a respiratory signal passing through the human body and acquired in a local coil, wherein the measured respiratory signal is constituted by a real respiratory signal and an interference signal; determining, according to a respiratory signal coil sensitivity of the real respiratory signal and an interference signal coil sensitivity of the interference signal, a signal relation that is satisfied by the real respiratory signal, the interference signal and the measured respiratory signal; and calculating the signal relation to obtain the real respiratory signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventors: Nan Xiao, De He Weng, Yan Tu Huang, Qiong Zhang
  • Patent number: 11360169
    Abstract: A magnetic resonance (MR) receive device comprises a coil or coil array including at least one radiofrequency (RF) coil element wherein each RF coil element comprises a coil and a preamplifier connected to amplify an output of the RF coil element to generate an amplified RF signal. The MR receive device further includes an RF-over-Fiber module comprising an optical fiber, a photonic device optically coupled to send an optical signal into the optical fiber, and an RF modulator connected to modulate the optical signal by an MR signal comprising the amplified RF signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventors: Timothy Ortiz, Tracy Allyn Wynn, Olli Tapio Friman
  • Patent number: 11353619
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a method of determining wettability characteristics of a sub-surface formation within a wellbore utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and bulk fluid measurements at various stages of fluid saturation at that wellbore location. In another aspect, the pumping pressure is incrementally changed within the wellbore, measuring injection fluid and hydrocarbon saturation data values between the incremental pump pressure changes. In another aspect, a measuring and sampling tool is disclosed to execute the method and produce wettability characteristics. In another aspect, a system is disclosed that can operate NMR devices, bulk fluid equipment, pump systems, and other devices to collect data and to determine wettability characteristics on the collected data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Songhua Chen, Lilong Li
  • Patent number: 11353535
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods, and computer program products for reducing an appearance of an artifact in an image generated by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system are disclosed. The apparatus includes a magnetic field generating device configured to create an inhomogeneity in the magnetic field of an MRI system and prevent at least one out-of-field excitation during imaging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: VIEWRAY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Thomas Chmielewski, Shmaryu M. Shvartsman
  • Patent number: 11340180
    Abstract: A method and system for determining a property of a substance using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is described herein. The method includes applying a NMR pulse sequence to the substance. The NMR pulse sequence includes a first set of pulses and a second set of pulses. The first set of pulses and the second set of pulses encode for overlapping diffusion times. By overlapping diffusion times, the NMR pulse sequence can be used to measure a diffusion coefficient for a first diffusion time, a diffusion coefficient for a second diffusion time, and a correlation between the two overlapping diffusion times. This information, in turn, can be used to differentiate between intrinsic bulk diffusivity of the substance and the reduced diffusivity of the substance caused by restricted diffusion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jeffrey Paulsen, Yi-Qiao Song
  • Patent number: 11340321
    Abstract: A magnetic resonance tomography system can include a basic field magnet arrangement configured to generate a basic magnetic field (B0), and spatially separated measurement stations (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, N5, M6, Mp, Ms). The magnetic resonance tomography system can use the intended basic magnetic field (B0) collectively for the measurement stations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventor: Stefan Popescu
  • Patent number: 11340327
    Abstract: A coil facility for a magnetic resonance installation and a magnetic resonance installation having such a coil facility are provided. The coil facility in this case includes a double-resonant transmit resonator for two frequencies and a first receiver and a second receiver, each for one of the two frequencies. The coil facility has an actuator system for effecting a relative spatial transposition of the transmit resonator, the first receiver, and the second receiver into various settings. In a first setting, only the first receiver, and in a second setting, only the second receiver, for receiving corresponding MR signals is arranged in an examination space that is at least sectionally surrounded by the transmit resonator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventor: Ralph Kimmlingen
  • Patent number: 11333728
    Abstract: A pre-polarisation magnet arrangement for generating a pre-polarisation field for use in a low field magnetic resonance imaging process, the pre-polarisation magnet arrangement including a pre-polarisation field array including a plurality of permanent pre-polarisation magnets mounted in a support and provided in a circumferentially spaced arrangement surrounding an field of view, a number of the pre-polarisation magnets being movable between respective first and second positions, wherein in the first position the pre-polarisation magnets are configured as a cylindrical Halbach array to generate a pre-polarisation field in the field of view and in the second position the pre-polarisation magnets are configured to minimize the pre-polarisation field in the field of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
    Inventors: Michael Werner Vogel, David Charles Reutens, Andrea Giorni, Ruben Pellicer-Guridi, Viktor Vegh