Jens Anders1,
Paul SanGiorgio1, Giovanni Boero1, Xenia Deligianni2,
Sunil Patil2, Klaus Scheffler2
1Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; 2University of Basel, University
Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
In
this work, standard CMOS technology is used to miniaturize highly integrated
active tracking devices in MR image guided interventions. The presented
microsystem contains a detection coil, a tuning capacitor, a low-noise
amplifier, a downconversion mixer and a low-frequency gain stage on a single
integrated circuit. Downconverting the NMR signal to a few kilohertz on chip
significantly reduces losses in the cables and thereby facilitates the use of
the system in small catheters. The feasibility of the approach is
demonstrated with phantom experiments in a standard 1.5 T clinical scanner.