An FPGA-Based Multi-Channel Receiver Module for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Abstract:

A field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based multi-channel receiver module was developed for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with its performance evaluated by MRI experiments. Based on a single FPGA, this apparatus operates direct sampling, digital down conversion and data flow control for multi-channel MR signals. The system-level digital signal processing (DSP) development tools offered by Xilinx company——System Generator was used for FPGA function modeling, simulation and automatic code generation of HDL. The sampling rate of this module is 80 MSPS and the receiver bandwidth can be varied between 1 kHz and 1 MHz, thus the module is suitable for an MRI system with a magnetic field lower than 1 T. Inside the FPGA, digital quadrature demodulation, decimation filtering and data stream processing of one to four channels of sampled signals are performed, and the module is expandable to 8 channels. This module has features of small size, highly integrated and reconfigurable and low cost, providing a high-performance digital solution for multi-channel reception system of an MRI spectrometer.

Key words: MRI, digital receiver, digital down conversion, field programmable gate array

CLC Number:

O482.53

WANG Hong, SUN Hong-Yu, TANG Wei-Nan, LIN Xian-Chai, WANG Wei-Min. An FPGA-Based Multi-Channel Receiver Module for Magnetic Resonance Imaging[J]. Chinese Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2012, 29(2): 239-247.

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