Byeong Ho Eom1, Konstantin Penanen1, Peter K. Day1, Inseob Hahn1, Mark S. Cohen2
1Jet Propulsion Lab/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA; 2Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
In-vivo MR imaging at very low fields using superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry and pre-polarizing field cycling technique has been demonstrated recently and many advantages have been noted. Although the expensive superconducting magnet can be essentially eliminated in a pre-polarizing low field SQUID MRI system, expendable cryogens and its maintenance service, required to cool the low temperature detector, are still placing increasing burden on the operational cost. We have built a prototype cryogen-free SQUID MRI system. Here we present its design, noise characterizations and the first phantom image.