Abstract #3775

A Novel Phantom Design to Reduce Thermal Losses During Radio Frequency (RF) Induced Heating Testing According to ASTM F2182-09 Standard

Christian Koch^1,2, Gregor Schaefers¹, Waldemar Zylka²

¹MR:comp GmbH, MR Safety Testing Laboratory, Buschgrundstrae 33, 45894 Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; ²Deptartment of Physical Engineering, Medical Physics Laboratory, University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen, Neidenburger Str. 43, 45877 Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

A new phantom design is proposed to improve the accuracy of calorimetrically determined whole phantom specific absorption rate (SAR) for RF heating measurements. Emphasis has been laid on reducing the thermal error caused by heat capacity of the phantoms material. To assess this calorimetrical accuracy, numerical calculations of temperature distribution and averaged temperature rise have been carried out for two different phantom models. It is demonstrated that the thermal inaccuracy due to phantom body material can be reduced significantly, i.e. below the resolution of the temperature measurement device.