Dual-path NMR receiver using double transceiver microcoils

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015:2015:7107-10. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2015.7320030.

Abstract

We present a fully integrated CMOS dual path front-end receiver for NMR applications. Instead of conventional NMR systems which are using one transceiver coil, we propose a dual-path receiver in which it has two transceiver microcoils. This structure cancels the background signal and consequently improving the sensitivity. Spectral simulations of the dual-path receiver are used to verify cancellation of the background signal in this structure. The front-end receiver contains two differential low-noise amplifiers (LNA), two voltage buffers (for conventional mode), two phase shifters, two variable gain amplifiers (VGA), one differential LNA and voltage buffer at the end. This chain of dual-path receiver is designed for 21 MHz NMR settings. The front-end receiver achieves an input referred noise of 2.7 nV/√Hz and voltage gain of 80 dB. The chip is designed in a 0.13-μm CMOS technology and occupies an area of 1 mm × 2 mm.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Electricity
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / instrumentation*
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted