Teaching Software

the intuitive way to learn MRI

  • Signal Generation: How to create an FID.
  • T1 measurements
  • T1 profile of two test tubes filled with oil and water.
  • T2 measurements
  • Imaging experiments: 2D Spinecho of two test tubes filled with oil and water.
  • Imaging experiments: 3D Spinecho
  • Imaging experiments: 3D Spinecho of a honey bee. Viewer included in software. Volview export possible.
  • VolView export: Use the power of VolView to visualize 3D measurements.

Teach-m is designed to lead you through all aspects of magnet resonance tomography. The possibility to access experiments on runtime and directly visualize the results gives you an unprecedented learning experience. Lessons from NMR basics to advanced MRI methods can be examined.

Highlights:

  • Training at a real MRT
  • high resolution 3D imaging
  • T1/T2 measurements
  • live visualization of data
  • realtime control of experiments
  • all MR parameters accessible
  • export all data for further analysis (Matlab, Volview, ...)

Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy

Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy (MPS) is a new measurement method related to Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI). In MPS a sinusoidal signal is applied to the sample. Due to the non-linearity of the magnetization curve of the sample, the acquired signal contains higher harmonics. The magnetic characteristics of the sample can be calculated by this information. Hence MPS has become a standard method for characterizing and optimizing magnetic particles that are used either for MPI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

 

Our MPS software can perform simple "one-button" experiments as well as highly advanced measurements. Experienced users can access and change all parameters individually. Besides the automatic report generation for each measurement it is possible to access the acquired raw data.

 

 
  • MPS unit
  • MPS software
  • MPS Lab
 

 

Applications

  • MRI contrast agents
  • magnetic particles
  • MPI tracers
  • ferrofluides

Features

  • drive field: 0 - 30 mT
  • sample chamber: test tubes with 6 mm diameter
  • frequency: 20 kHz (others optional)
  • bandwidth: 2.5 MHz

Download sample data (zip)

 

Polymer Profiler

The Polymer Profiler is a joint development of Pure Devices and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS.

Polymers, such as plastics, adhesives and sealants as well as other magnetic resonance visible materials, can be analyzed and characterized non-destructively by the Fraunhofer EZRT Polymer-Profiler Software. The use of a the Pure Devices MRI system ensures an outstanding sensitivity for this task.

The data is acquired using magnetic fields and pulsed radio frequency (RF). It is then processed and displayed as plots by the software. Any material change caused by either chemical, thermal or aging processes has an influence on the MR data, enabling the user to detect this change and take prompt measures to assure the required quality or to regulate underlying processes.

 

 
  • Polymer Profiler
  • Hardening Process
  • Relaxation curves
  • 2D fingerprint
  • Change of relaxation curves from a resin hardening process. Each curve, from dark blue to red, represents a time point during the transition from liquid to cured
  • Characteristic relaxation curves for various materials
  • The 2D-fingerprint method depicts the correlation of two relaxation times. This improves the significance of the measured characteristic material information, whereas the uncorrelated single relaxation spectra only provide the information concerning the projections (see orange profiles at the axes at the bottom and on the right).
 

 

Applications

  • quality control of plastics, adhesives and sealants
  • detection of material parameter changes
  • laboratory and process line use
  • identification of different polymers
  • monitoring of aging processes

Features

  • complete MRI/NMR system
  • temperature controled magnet with 0.5 Tesla
  • high power RF amplifier
  • proton-free and low dead time probehead
  • user friendly yet powerful software
  • Fraunhofer approved algorithms for data evaluation
  • easy to setup

Measurement Procedures

  • Relaxation time measurements
  • Time resolved change of relaxation curves
  • 2D fingerprinting of polymer materials

 

Magnetic Particle Imaging

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a novel tomographic method for determining the distribution of magnetic material in three dimensions. Similar to Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy (MPS), MPI is based on the nonlinear magnetization response of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNP) to dynamic magnetic fields. Additional strong magnetic field gradients are used to encode the field of view (FOV) by selectively generating higher harmonics near the encoding scheme. The encoding scheme can have different shapes, such as field-free point (FFP) or field-free line (FFL), which can be moved through the FOV in a variety of ways (trajectories) [1,2,3].

 

Similar to PET or SPECT, MPI is a tracer-based method, which comes with a lot advantages, such as high spatial resolution [4], high sensitivity [5] and high temporal resolution [6]. These features build a promising new technology for different fields, such as material science, biology, chemistry, and medicine. Especially the latter field shows some interesting developments in the last decade, e.g., MPI as a promising tool for future intervention, such as PTA or stenting [7-12], but also novel scanner designs for human-sized applications [13-17].
Based on one novel scanner design, the pdMPI scanner is based on the traveling wave (TW) approach, which uses a dynamic linear gradient array for the generation of the strong magnetic field gradient required for the spatial encoding [18, 19]. With this TWMPI technique, several unique features, such as real parallel MPI [20], superspeed MPI [21], zoom-MPI [22], or hybrid imaging with CT [15, 23] or MRI [24, 25] are connected. This provides new possibilities and new applications for MPI.
A further development of the encoding scheme allows for the first time a fully electrical controlled 3D movement of an FFL [26] in combination with a small and lightweight hardware design [15].

The pdMPI device


Based on the TW-FFL technology, the pdMPI device provides the first benchtop 3D MPI scanner for research and education and gives an easy entry into the interesting field of MPI.
The pdMPI scanner is a highly flexible system, which comes with a fully 3D simulation framework [27], which not only allows a full emulation of the scanner but also image reconstruction and visualization (2d & 3D) in real-time [28, 29].
With the openMatlab interface, the pdMPI scanner can be easily adapted and integrated into established processes in industry, research, and education.
In the following, only few examples of FFL trajectories covering the data within the FOV of the scanner are shown. Until now, 10 different standard sequences are implemented but with the arbitrary adjustable frequencies, the pdMPI scanner can be set up for your application.

 

 
  • MPI software
  • MPI experiment data
 

References

[1]       B. Gleich & J. Weizenecker. Tomographic imaging using the nonlinear response of magnetic particles, Nature, vol. 435(7046), pp. 1217–1217, 2005.

[2]       J. Weizenecker et al. Magnetic Particle Imaging using a Field Free Line, J. Phys. D: Appl Phys, vol. 41:105009, 2008.

[3]       A. Neumann et al., Recent developments in Magnetic Particle Imaging, JMMM, vol. 500: 169037, 2022.

[4]       P. Vogel, et al., Micro-Traveling Wave Magnetic Particle Imaging – sub-millimeter resolution with optimized tracer LS-008, IEEE TMAG, vol. 55(10): 5300207, 2019.

[5]       M. Graeser, et al., Towards Picogram Detection of Superparamagnetic Iron-Oxide Particles Using a Gradiometric Receive Coil, Sci Rep, vol. 7:6872, 2017.

[6]       P. Vogel, et al., Superspeed Bolus Visualization for Vascular Magnetic Particle Imaging, IEEE TMI, vol. 39(6), pp. 2133-9, 2020.

[7]       S. Herz, et al., Magnetic Particle Imaging-Guided Stenting, J Endovasc Ther, vol. 26(4), pp. 512-9, 2019.

[8]       S. Herz, et al., Magnetic particle imaging guided real-time percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in a phantom model, Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol, vol. 41(7), pp. 1100–5, 2018.

[9]       J. Haegele, et al., Magnetic particle imaging: visualization of instruments for cardiovascular intervention, Radiology, vol. 265(3), pp. 933–8. 2012.

[10]     J. Sedlacik et al., Magnetic particle imaging for high temporal resolution assessment of aneurysm hemodynamics, PLoS ONE, vol. 11(8):e0160097, 2016.

[11]     J. Salamon, et al. Magnetic particle / magnetic resonance imaging: in-vitro MPI-guided real time catheter tracking and 4D angioplasty using a road map and blood pool tracer approach, PLoS ONE, vol. 11(6):e0156899, 2016.

[12]     J. Haegele et al., Toward cardiovascular interventions guided by magnetic particle imaging: first instrument characterization, Magn Reson Med, vol.69(6), pp. 1761-7, 2013.

[13]     M. Graeser et al., Human-sized magnetic particle imaging for brain applications, Nature Comm, vol. 10:1936, 2019.

[14]     E. E. Mason, et al. Design analysis of an MPI human functional brain scanner, Int. J. Magn. Part. Imaging, vol. 3(1):1703008, 2017.

[15]     P. Vogel et al. iMPI – portable human-sized Magnetic Particle Imaging Scanner for real-time endovascular Interventions, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2294644/v1, 2022

[16]     P. Vogel et al. Realtime iMPI-guided PTA with a lightweight human-sized MPI scanner, Int. J. Magn. Part. Imaging, vol. 9(1):2303024, 2023.

[17]     J. Günther et al. Human-sized Lightweight Head-Scanner Design, Int. J. Magn. Part. Imaging, vol. 8(1):2203064, 2022.

[18]     P. Vogel, et al. Traveling Wave Magnetic Particle Imaging, IEEE Trans Med Imaging., vol. 33(2), pp. 400–407, 2014.

[19]     P. Vogel et al., Dynamic Linear Gradient Array for Traveling Wave Magnetic Particle Imaging, IEEE Trans Magn, vol. 54(2): 5300109, 2018.

[20]     P. Vogel et al. Parallel Magnetic Particle Imaging, Rev. Sci. Instrum., vol. 91(4):045117, 2020.

[21]     P. Vogel et al. Suerspeed Traveling Wave Magnetic Particle Imaging, IEEE Trans Magn, vol. 51(2):6501603, 2015.

[22]     P. Vogel, et al., Adjustable hardware lens for Traveling Wave MPI, IEEE Trans Magn, vol. 56(11):5300506, 2020.

[23]     P. Vogel, et al., Magnetic Particle Imaging meets Computed Tomography: first simultaneous imaging, Sci Rep, vol. 9:12672, 2019.

[24]     P. Vogel et al. MRI meets MPI: a bimodal MPI-MRI tomograph, IEEE TMI, vol. 33(10), pp. 1954-9, 2014.

[25]     P. Klauer et al. Bimodal TWMPI-MRI Hybrid Scanner – Coil Setup and Electronics, IEEE Trans Magn, vol.51(2):5300504, 2015.

[26]     C. Greiner et al. Traveling Wave MPI utilizing a Field-Free Line, Int. J. Magn. Part. Imaging, vol. 8(1):2203027, 2022.

[27]     P. Vogel et al., Highly Flexible and Modular Simulation Framework for Magnetic Particle Imaging, arXiv:2208.13835, 2022.

[28]     P. Vogel, T. Kampf, M.A. Rückert, V.C. Behr, Flexible and Dynamic Patch Reconstruction for Traveling Wave Magnetic Particle Imaging, International Journal on MPI, vol. 2(2):1611001, 2016.

[29]     P. Vogel, et al., Low Latency Real-time Reconstruction for MPI Systems, Int. J. on MPI, vol. 3(2):1707002, 2017.

[30]     S. Herz et al. MPI-guided endovascular therapy of 3D printed human aneurysm, Int. J. on MPI, vol.9(1):2303065, 2023.

 

 

 

Top features

  • innovative 3D imaging
  • dynamic field-free line encoding
  • traveling wave MPI
  • 5 channel transmit system
  • bore size: 15 mm
  • gradient strength: up to 1 T/m
  • AQ time per 3D image: 20 ms
  • open Matlab interface

Highly flexible and modular setup:

  • vertical or horizontal scanner design
  • arbitrary sequences & trajectories
  • modular amplifier cabinet
  • gradient strength: up to 15 T/m
  • frequencies: DC…10 kHz
  • scalable bore size: up to 25 cm

openMATLAB® interface

control directly out of MATLAB®

 

  • Write our own sequences directly in MATLAB.
  • Plot your data with the powerful matlab figures - example: SpinEcho 0D
  • Network analyser included: Tune and match your coils directly out of MATLAB - no repluging required!
  • GUIs for easy operation available - example: echo train
  • Sequence Plot: Use the power of MATLAB to plot, zoom and analyse our sequences.
  • Shaped RF pulses: Use our pre-defined RF-pulse-shapes or easily create your own shape.
  • Slice Select: For 3D imaging methods use 'Slice Select GUI' for simple slice orientation.

 

  • complete control out of MATLAB®
  • push-button experiments including source code
  • real time network analyzer mode for RF-coil development
  • no timing restrictions
  • up to 512 RF pulses per rep. time
  • up to 512 AQ windows per rep. time
  • arbitrary gradient shapes
  • TX/RX with multiple frequencies/phases
  • use MATLAB for data analysis
  • real time feedback

 

Tutorial Video: Write a SpinEcho 2D using our openMATLAB interface