Development of Digital MRI Consoles Using General-Purpose Digital Instruments and Microcontroller Boards

Abstract

We developed two digital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) consoles using general-purpose digital instruments and microcontroller boards. The first console consisted of a digital oscilloscope (8-bit resolution, 250-MHz sampling frequency), an arbitrary waveform generator (14-bit resolution, 100-MHz sampling frequency), and three 32-bit microcontroller boards. The second console consisted of a digital oscilloscope (16-bit resolution, 1-GHz sampling frequency) with a built-in waveform generator (14-bit resolution, 200-MHz sampling frequency) and three 32-bit microcontroller boards. MRI experiments were performed using a 1.0-T and 90-mm gap yokeless permanent magnet to evaluate the MRI consoles. Three-dimensional spin-echo and gradient-echo images were successfully acquired using the first and second MRI consoles using an undersampling technique and RF phase correction. We concluded that the digital MRI consoles could be built using general-purpose digital instruments and microcontroller boards at a reduced cost and within a short development time.