Recently, the US patent and trademark office has been issued on MRI hardware improvements. The inventors are Suheyl Taraghinia, Bilal Tasdelen, and Ergin Atalar of UMRAM, as well as two former UMRAM researchers Redi Poni and Koray Ertan. The patents are listed below.
Atalar, E., Taraghinia, S., Ertan, N.K. and Tasdelen, B., Spatiotemporal magnetic field monitoring with hall effect sensors during the MRI scan, US patent no: 10641858, 5/5/2020- Atalar, E. and Poni, R., Magnetic resonance imaging scanner with coil serving as inductor of power amplifier, US patent no: 10641847, 5/5/2020
- Atalar, E., Taraghinia, S. and Ertan, N.K., Gradient magnetic field generation module using plurality of coils so as to generate gradient magnetic field, US patent no: 10578691, 3/3/2020
- Atalar, E., Ertan, N.K. and Taraghinia, S., Multi-Purpose Gradient Array for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US patent no: 10571537, 25/2/2020
Three of these patents are related to the gradient field. In the patent 10,571,537, the inventors described a novel gradient array system, which enables imaging simultaneous multislice imaging without causing an increase in the specific absorption rate. In the patent 10,578,691, they explain a method for generating desired magnetic fields optimized for maximum slew rate, gradient strength, the volume of interest. In 10,641,858, the inventors demonstrate that a way to measure low magnetic field variations under a high magnetic field using a hall-effect sensor for the application of measuring gradient field in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. In the patent 10,641,847, the inventors explain an on-coil RF power amplifier design for transmitting RF power in a very efficient way.