Determination of a type of processing of signals transmitted by local coil

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9810752-B2
Application number	US-201414483795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2014
Priority date	Sep 11, 2013
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for a magnetic resonance imaging system are provided. A type of further processing of signals transmitted by a local coil to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is determined in dependence on information received in or from the local coil about a local-coil type of the local coil.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for a magnetic resonance imaging system, the apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to determine, based on information received from a local coil about a local-coil type of the local coil, in the magnetic resonance imaging system, a type of processing of signals transmitted by the local coil to a part of the magnetic resonance imaging system, the type of processing of the signals being related to a preprocessing on a transmission mode.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a magnetic resonance imaging system reception signal further processing device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, which relates to a signal type of RF reception signals transmitted by the local coil to the magnetic resonance imaging system, a type of further processing of signals received from the local coil.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, with respect to the transmission of signals of the local coil to the magnetic resonance imaging system either at a Larmor frequency of the magnetic resonance imaging system or at least one intermediate frequency deviating from the Larmor frequency, a type of further processing of signals received from the local coil.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil as to whether the local coil has no mixer, has no FDM combiner, or has no mixer or FDM combiner, or whether the local has a mixer, has an FDM combiner, or has a mixer and an FDM combiner, a type of further processing of signals received from the local coil.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to whether analog postprocessing of the signals is carried out outside the local coil in the magnetic resonance imaging system.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to whether filters for filtering the signals should be connected, switched, disconnected, detuned, or a combination thereof.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to whether local oscillators should be connected, disconnected, or connected and disconnected.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to whether amplifications or attenuations for balancing gain should be provided.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to whether analog compression properties should be provided for compression or decompression of the signals, which analog compression properties should be provided for compression or decompression of the signals, or a combination thereof.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to which settings of an analog multiplexer, a mixer, or the analog multiplexer and the mixer are to be provided with respect to the multiplex frequency.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil as to which sample rate or sampling rate should be chosen in an analog/digital converter for the signals.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil with respect to settings of digital postprocessing of the signals after an analog/digital conversion.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil with respect to an expansion in the case of a preceding analog compression.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil with respect to a frequency conversion by mixing with a numeric controlled oscillator signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil with respect to a decimation using a decimation filter.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the information received in or from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil, the type of the processing of the signals received from the local coil with respect to a change in a frequency position of the signals received as an intermediate frequency signal in a normal position or inverted position.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the information is received from the local coil about the local-coil type of the local coil as analog code or as digital code.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the information about the local-coil type of the local coil is received from the local coil as code, on the basis of which details about the type of the further processing of the signals received from the local coil are retrieved in a memory in the magnetic resonance imaging system.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the information about the local-coil type of the local coil is received from the local coil on account of coding of a plug or a socket at the local coil in the form of one or more short-circuit plugs at an interface.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the information about the local-coil type of the local coil is received from the local coil in the form of identifying information received by radio link of RFID tags from the local coil.

22.

Assignees

• Biber Stephan
• Bollenbeck Jan
• Vester Markus
• Wang Jianmin
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Biber Stephan
• Bollenbeck Jan
• Vester Markus
• Wang Jianmin

Classifications

• G01R33/3621

  NMR receivers or demodulators, e.g. preamplifiers, means for frequency modulation of the MR signal using a digital down converter, means for analog to digital conversion [ADC] or for filtering or processing of the MR signal such as bandpass filtering, resampling, decimation or interpolation · CPC title

• G01R33/341 Primary

  comprising surface coils · CPC title

• G01R33/3664

  Switching for purposes other than coil coupling or decoupling, e.g. switching between a phased array mode and a quadrature mode, switching between surface coil modes of different geometrical shapes, switching from a whole body reception coil to a local reception coil or switching for automatic coil selection in moving table MR or for changing the field-of-view (G01R33/3671 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01R33/3415

  comprising arrays of sub-coils {, i.e. phased-array coils with flexible receiver channels} · CPC title

• G01R33/3852

  Gradient amplifiers; means for controlling the application of a gradient magnetic field to the sample, e.g. a gradient signal synthesizer · CPC title