Measurements Inside a Rabbit Sized FFL-MPI Device Using a Gradiometric Receive Coil

This work continues prior investigations on the currently world’s largest field-free line (FFL) magnetic-particle- imaging (MPI) scanner. The bore of the imaging device provides a diameter of 180 mm and is designed to accomodate measurement objects up to rabbit size. It has already been shown that the drive-field coil is capable of conducting an alternating current with a frequency of 25 kHz and an amplitude of above 500 A. With this current input, the drive-field generator produces a magnetic flux density of more than 20 mT amplitude in the center of the bore. As the associated magnetic field strength is already sufficient to excite super-paramagnetic iron oxide nano particles (SPIONs), this work presents an approach to further increase the sensitivity of the system by testing a gradiometric receive-coil arrangement.