Patents by Inventor Wolfgang Ruhm

Wolfgang Ruhm has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9958522
    Abstract: A method for determining the spatial distribution of magnetic resonance signals from at least one of N subvolumes predefines a reception encoding scheme and determines unique spatial encoding for at least one of the subvolumes but not for the entire volume under examination (UV). A transmission encoding scheme is also defined, wherein encoding is effected via the amplitude and/or phase of the transverse magnetization. The temporal amplitude and phase profile of the RF pulses is then calculated and each reception encoding step is carried out I times with variations according to the I transmission encoding steps in the transmission encoding scheme. The method makes it possible to largely restrict the spatially resolving MR signal encoding and image reconstruction to subvolumes of the object under examination without the achievable image quality sensitively depending on imperfections in the MR apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Ruhm, Johannes Schneider, Peter Ullmann
  • Patent number: 9885768
    Abstract: A method for generating a desired temporal profile of the magnetization state in an object under examination (O) during an experiment involving magnetic resonance is characterized in that at least one spatially dependent change in the magnetization state inside the object under examination (O) is predefined and spatially selective radio-frequency pulses, which allow a simultaneous and independent change in the magnetization state at locations with different stipulations, are irradiated in order to implement the predefined spatially dependent change in the magnetization state. The method permits establishment of the same desired temporal profile of the magnetization state for different regions of the object under examination despite different given experimental parameters or deliberate generation of different desired profiles of the magnetization state at different locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH
    Inventors: Peter Ullmann, Johannes Schneider, Wolfgang Ruhm
  • Publication number: 20140312898
    Abstract: A method for generating a desired temporal profile of the magnetization state in an object under examination (O) during an experiment involving magnetic resonance is characterized in that at least one spatially dependent change in the magnetization state inside the object under examination (O) is predefined and spatially selective radio-frequency pulses, which allow a simultaneous and independent change in the magnetization state at locations with different stipulations, are irradiated in order to implement the predefined spatially dependent change in the magnetization state. The method permits establishment of the same desired temporal profile of the magnetization state for different regions of the object under examination despite different given experimental parameters or deliberate generation of different desired profiles of the magnetization state at different locations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2012
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Applicant: BRUKER BIOSPIN MRI GMBH
    Inventors: Peter Ullmann, Johannes Schneider, Wolfgang Ruhm
  • Patent number: 8508227
    Abstract: A method for position dependent change in the magnetization in an object, according to a requirement in a magnetic resonance measurement, wherein radio-frequency pulses are irradiated in conjunction with supplementary magnetic fields that vary in space and over time and are superposed on the static and homogeneous basic field of a magnetic resonance measurement apparatus along a z-direction, is characterized in that non-linear supplementary magnetic fields are used, whose spatial gradient of the z-component is not constant at least at one instant of the irradiation, and that the radio-frequency pulses to be irradiated are calculated in advance, wherein progressions over time of the field strengths of the supplementary magnetic fields in the region of the object that are calculated and/or measured position-dependently are included in this calculation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignees: Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH, Universitaetsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventors: Martin Haas, Peter Ullmann, Wolfgang Ruhm, Maxim Zaitsev, Jürgen Hennig
  • Patent number: 8082127
    Abstract: A method for determining the spatial distribution of magnetic resonance signals from an imaging area, wherein nuclear spins are excited in a spatially encoded fashion through multi-dimensional RF pulses, is characterized in that in a definition step, a resolution grid with resolution grid cells is predetermined, and in accordance with a predetermined phase encoding scheme, an excitation pattern is defined for each phase encoding step, in which the amplitudes within the imaging area are set in accordance with a predetermined distribution identically for each phase encoding step. In a preparatory step, the amplitude and phase behavior of the RF pulses to be irradiated is calculated in accordance with a predetermined k-space trajectory for each defined complex excitation pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignee: Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH
    Inventor: Wolfgang Ruhm
  • Publication number: 20110080169
    Abstract: A method for position dependent change in the magnetization in an object, according to a requirement in a magnetic resonance measurement, wherein radio-frequency pulses are irradiated in conjunction with supplementary magnetic fields that vary in space and over time and are superposed on the static and homogeneous basic field of a magnetic resonance measurement apparatus along a z-direction, is characterized in that non-linear supplementary magnetic fields are used, whose spatial gradient of the z-component is not constant at least at one instant of the irradiation, and that the radio-frequency pulses to be irradiated are calculated in advance, wherein progressions over time of the field strengths of the supplementary magnetic fields in the region of the object that are calculated and/or measured position-dependently are included in this calculation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2010
    Publication date: April 7, 2011
    Inventors: Martin Haas, Peter Ullmann, Wolfgang Ruhm, Maxim Zaitsev, Jürgen Hennig
  • Patent number: 7843195
    Abstract: A method for determining the spatial distribution of magnetic resonance (MR) signals from an imaging region has a preparatory step in which an encoding scheme with I phase encoding steps is defined, for each phase encoding step according to the phase encoding scheme, an excitation pattern of the transverse magnetization is defined and RF pulses to be irradiated to implement this pattern are calculated, wherein the same phase is defined at all spatial locations of the imaging region within an MSEM region and, in the execution step, according to the spatial encoding scheme each encoding step is performed I times according to the phase encoding scheme, wherein selection of the imaging region, amplitude modulation, and phase encoding are performed with the calculated RF pulses during excitation of the nuclear spin. This results in unique determination of the spatial distribution of the magnetic resonance signals with a simple RF receiver configuration using local gradient systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Bruker Biospin MRI GmbH
    Inventor: Wolfgang Ruhm
  • Publication number: 20100286500
    Abstract: A method for determining the spatial distribution of magnetic resonance signals from an imaging area, wherein nuclear spins are excited in a spatially encoded fashion through multi-dimensional RF pulses, is characterized in that in a definition step, a resolution grid with resolution grid cells is predetermined, and in accordance with a predetermined phase encoding scheme, an excitation pattern is defined for each phase encoding step, in which the amplitudes within the imaging area are set in accordance with a predetermined distribution identically for each phase encoding step, the amplitudes of the residual resolution grid cells are set to zero, and the phases of the resolution grid cells within the imaging area are set in accordance with the phase encoding scheme, in a preparatory step, the amplitude and phase behavior of the RF pulses to be irradiated is calculated in accordance with a predetermined k-space trajectory for each defined complex excitation pattern of the phase encoding steps and for each tra
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2008
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventor: Wolfgang Ruhm
  • Publication number: 20090273345
    Abstract: A method for determining the spatial distribution of magnetic resonance (MR) signals from an imaging region within MSEM regions of a local gradient system, wherein, in a preparatory step, a spatial encoding scheme is defined; in an execution step, nuclear spins are repeatedly excited with RF pulses, and thereafter spatially encoded according to the spatial encoding scheme, in at least one dimension by means of the local gradient system, and MR signals are acquired, from which the spatial distribution is calculated, visualized and/or stored, characterized in that in the preparatory step, a phase encoding scheme with I phase encoding steps is defined, for each phase encoding step according to the phase encoding scheme, an excitation pattern of the transverse magnetization is defined and RF pulses to be irradiated to implement this pattern are calculated, wherein the same phase is defined at all spatial locations of the imaging region within a MSEM region and, in the execution step, according to the spatial enc
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Publication date: November 5, 2009
    Applicant: Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH
    Inventor: Wolfgang Ruhm