Magnetic resonance microsystems for life science applications

Nuclear magnetic (MR) resonance spectroscopy and imaging technique are powerful methods available for determining molecular structures and non-invasive 3D imaging. In the effort of developing a nanoMRI microsystem, the authors have designed, fabricated, assembled and did preliminary characterization of the nanoMRI probe. A multilayer high aspect ratio metal process has been developed for this project. NanoMRI probes are designed through multi-physics finite element 3D analysis, integrated using the high aspect ratio process, assembled, and the RF coils are matched and tuned to a 500MHz system. Due to the large magnetic field gradients and fast switching gradient coils, the high mass-sensitivity and additional orthogonal RF signal channels, special MR pulse sequencies (Lauterbur et al., 1992) can be developed for imaging and molecular structural analysis.