SIMULTANEOUS TX-RX FOR MRI SYSTEMS AND OTHER ANTENNA DEVICES
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- providing a magnetic-resonance (MR) coil having a plurality of antenna elements;
locating the MR coil in a bore of an MR magnet;
transmitting an MR transmit signal (TX signal) using the MR coil;
receiving an MR receive signal (RX signal) using the MR coil simultaneously with the transmitting of the MR transmit signal (TX signal);
removing artifacts of the TX signal from the received MR receive signal (RX signal) to form a net received signal (NRX signal); and
processing the net received signal (NRX signal) and generating MR output data from the processed NRX signal.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and method that are more efficient and flexible, and obtain and connect high-power RF transmit signals (TX) to RF-coil devices in an MR machine or other devices and simultaneously receive signals (RX) and separate net receive signals NRX) of interest by subtracting or filtering to remove the subtractable portion of the transmit signal (STX) from the RX and preamplifying the NRX and signal processing the preamplified NRX. In some embodiments, signal processing further removes artifacts of the transmitted signal, e.g., by digitizing the NRX signal, storing the digitized NRX signal in a memory, and performing digital signal processing. In some embodiments, the present invention also includes pre-distorting the TX signals in order to be better able to identify and/or remove the remaining artifacts of the transmitted signal from the NRX signal. This solution also applies to other high-power RF-transmit-antennae signals.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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providing a magnetic-resonance (MR) coil having a plurality of antenna elements; locating the MR coil in a bore of an MR magnet; transmitting an MR transmit signal (TX signal) using the MR coil; receiving an MR receive signal (RX signal) using the MR coil simultaneously with the transmitting of the MR transmit signal (TX signal); removing artifacts of the TX signal from the received MR receive signal (RX signal) to form a net received signal (NRX signal); and processing the net received signal (NRX signal) and generating MR output data from the processed NRX signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A non-transient computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method in a magnetic-resonance (MR) system that includes a coil having a plurality of antenna elements located a bore of an MR magnet, the method comprising:
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transmitting an MR transmit signal (TX signal) using the MR coil; receiving an MR receive signal (RX signal) using the MR coil simultaneously with the transmitting of the MR transmit signal (TX signal); removing artifacts of the TX signal from the received MR receive signal (RX signal) to form a net received signal (NRX signal); and processing the net received signal (NRX signal) and generating MR output data from the processed NRX signal.
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15. An apparatus comprising:
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an MR magnet that has a bore; a magnetic-resonance (MR) coil that has a plurality of antenna elements located in the bore of the MR magnet; a transmitter operably coupled to, and configured to transmit an MR transmit signal (TX signal) from, the MR coil; a receiver configured to receive an MR receive signal (RX signal) from the MR coil simultaneously with the transmission of the MR transmit signal (TX signal); an artifact remover circuit configured to remove artifacts of the TX signal from the received MR receive signal (RX signal) to form a net received signal (NRX signal); and a processor configured to process the net received signal (NRX signal) and to generate MR output data from the processed NRX signal. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification