Electric Field Probe for Time-Domain Monitoring of Radio Frequency Exposure During Development and Evaluation of MRI-Conditional Medical Devices at 3 T

This paper presents the design and validation of a tuned time-domain electric field probe for mapping of radio frequency (RF) exposures used during testing of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) conditional medical devices. The probes were 5 and 10 mm short dipole antenna, developed as a tradeoff between spatial resolution, linearity, and sensitivity. The probes were tuned and matched at a center frequency of 127.6 MHz, which corresponds to the RF frequency for 3T MRI scanners. To improve the accuracy and sensitivity, an RF low noise amplifier with high gain and very low noise figure was developed, followed by distributed λ/4 baluns along a triaxial cable to reduce the electric field pickup in the MRI environment. The probe was fabricated on a double-sided printed circuit board, FR4 thickness of 1.57 mm and a copper thickness of 35 μm. Theoretical analysis was performed to calculate the exposed electric field from the real-time receive signals. To verify the probe performance finitedifference time-domain method simulations were compared to the actual measured electric fields. Developed probe was tested in a commercially available 3T RF exposure system to determine the probe dynamic range and linearity.