A design of novel type superconducting magnet for super—high field functional magnetic resonance imaging by using the harmonic analysis method of magnetic vector potentials

A design of novel type superconducting magnet for super-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging by using the harmonic analysis method of magnetic vector potentials

The approach of expanding the magnetic scalar potential in a series of Legendre polynomials is suitable for designing a conventional superconducting magnetic resonance imaging magnet of distributed solenoidal configuration. Whereas the approach of expanding the magnetic vector potential in associated Legendre harmonics is suitable for designing a single-solenoid magnet that has multiple tiers, in which each tier may have multiple layers with different winding lengths. A set of three equations to suppress some of the lowest higher-order harmonics is found. As an example, a 4T single-solenoid magnetic resonance imaging magnet with 4×6 layers of superconducting wires is designed. The degree of homogeneity in the 0.5m diameter sphere volume is better than 5.8 ppm. The same degree of homogeneity is retained after optimal integralization of turns in each correction layer. The ratio B_m/B₀ in the single-solenoid magnet is 30% lower than that in the conventional six-solenoid magnet. This tolerates higher rated superconducting current in the coil. The Lorentz force of the coil in the single-solenoid system is also much lower than in the six-solenoid system. This novel type of magnet possesses significant advantage over conventional magnets, especially when used as a super-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging magnet.