Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Compatible Electromagnetic Actuator: Design and Tests

This paper presents the detailed design, construction and tests of a protype iron-free MRI-compatible electromagnetic actuator. The originality of this proposal lies in the use of the homogeneous static magnetic field B0, present in the MRI bore, to ensure the electromechanical energy conversion. The armature is composed of three rectangular coils in a three-phase arrangement, which makes the actuator very light-weight and compact. The operating principle is that of an AC synchronous motor with a rotating armature. In order to design the actuator, a 3D analytical electromagnetic model is developed to predict the magnetic field produced by the armature winding. Then, a 3D finite element (FE) computation is performed to validate the analytically calculated magnetic field. The developed analytical model is then inserted into an optimization routine based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to obtain the prototype dimensions to be realized. Finally, the prototype is constructed and tested inside an MRI research scanner. The results indicate that the reduction in the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and the geometrical distortion are less than 5% when the actuator is powered with a current of 10 times the rated one and when it is located very close to the subject to be imaged.