METHOD OF MAGNETIC FIELD CONTROLLED SHIMMING

The present invention is directed to a method of shimming a magnet assembly of an MR imaging system such that a desired BO field strength may be created with minimal inhomogeneities therethrough. With this method, sufficient shimming of the magnet assembly may be achieved without requiring mechanica...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Xu, Bu-Xin, Huang, Jinhua, Dorri, Bijan, Amm, Bruce
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 23.09.2004
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Summary:The present invention is directed to a method of shimming a magnet assembly of an MR imaging system such that a desired BO field strength may be created with minimal inhomogeneities therethrough. With this method, sufficient shimming of the magnet assembly may be achieved without requiring mechanical variations to the magnet assembly after the magnet assembly has been assembled. The invention analyzes variations from the desired B 0 field and inhomogeneities at a number of target points along the magnet assembly or B 0 field. A comparison is then made at each point to determine a shimming or weighting factor such that the desired overall B 0 field strength and targeted field homogeneity is achieved. Active and/or passive shim elements may then be incorporated into the magnet assembly at each target point to achieve the desired overall field strength and minimum overall field homogeneity.