Motor Design for an MR-Compatible Rotating Anode X-Ray Tube

Prasheel Lillaney¹, Robert Bennett¹, Rebecca Fahrig¹

This work discusses the development of an alternate motor design for rotating anode x-ray tubes to be used in hybrid x-ray/MR image guidance systems. The novel aspect of our design is that we propose to use the MR fringe field to generate torque in our motor. A proof of concept of our design has been assembled and can rotate at a maximum speed slightly above 450 RPM in a 45 mT external field. With further research and optimization of parameters we are confident that we can meet the design constraints for typical x-ray tube motors.