Precision finite element method simulations of a chip-integrated magnetic resonance coil for in-situ MR applications

Abstract

With the latest advances in system miniaturization, magnetic resonance (MR) is gaining interest as a tool for material characterization and chemical process control applications. Monolithically integrating both the receiver coil and the active MR electronics reduces the system size and cost. Moreover, the short interconnects avoid wave effects in the connecting cables, leading to a greatly increased design flexibility in the matching network. However, an integrated coil introduces several tradeoffs, which need to be understood well to still be able to achieve an excellent overall system performance. As shown in this paper, precision finite element method electromagnetic simulations are a suitable tool to extract the planar coil’s nonidealities quantitatively and, thereby, devise suitable countermeasures to improve the overall system performance.