3D solenoidal microcoil arrays with CMOS integrated amplifiers for parallel MR imaging and spectroscopy

We present high-performance MR imaging and spectroscopy results obtained with wire bonded solenoidal microcoils manufactured in a MEMS-integrated technology. We report MR testing of 400 μm inner diameter solenoidal microcoils for imaging of Eremosphaera Viridis algal cells with 10 μm isotropic resolution. NMR spectroscopy has been performed on a water sample obtaining a linewidth of 0.04 ppm. The newly introduced MEMS technology naturally lends itself to the fabrication of microcoil arrays, thus enabling parallel high-throughput MR investigation. As a proof of concept we report flip-chip integration of a microcoil-array with a CMOS amplifier array. “Teflon grease” has been used as phantom and three spectra have been acquired simultaneously yielding a linewidth of 0.5 kHz and a spin sensitivity in the frequency domain of 10¹⁵ spins/Hz^½.