• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.153-160
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• 2010

A magnetocardiogram (MCG) is a recording of the biomagnetic signals generated by cardiac electrical activity. Biomagnetic instruments are based on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). A liquid cryogenic Dewar flask was used to maintain the superconductors in a superconducting state at a very low temperature (4 K). In this study, the temperature distribution characteristics of the liquid helium in the Dewar flask was investigated. The Dewar flask used in this study has a 30 L liquid helium capacity with a hold time of 5 d. The Dewar flask has two thermal shields rated at 150 and 40 K. The temperatures measured at the end of the thermal shield and calculated from the computer model were compared. This study attempted to minimize the heat transfer rate of the cryogenic Dewar flask using an optimization method about the geometric variable to find the characteristics for the design geometric variables in terms of the stress distribution of the Dewar flask. For thermal and optimization analysis of the structure, the finite element method code ANSYS 10 was used. The computer model used for the cryogenic Dewar flask was useful to predict the temperature distribution for the area less affected by the thermal radiation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.159-165
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• 2003

We developed a 37-channel magnetoencephalogram (MEG) measurement system based on low-noise superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometets, and operated the system to measure MEG signals. By using double relaxation oscillation SQUIDs with high flux-4o-voltage transfers, the SQUID outputs could be measured directly by room temperature preamplifiers and compact readout circuits were used for SQUID operation. The average field noise level of the magnetometers is about 3 fT/√Hz in the white region, low enough for MEG measurements when operated inside a magnetically shielded room. The 37 magnetometers were distributed on a hemispherical surface haying a radius of 125 mm. In addition to the 37 sensing channels. 11 reference channels were installed to pickup external noise and to form software gradiometers. A low-noise liquid helium dewar was fabricated with a liquid capacity of 30 L and boil-off rate of 4 L/d. The signal processing software consists of digital filtering, software gradiometer, isofield mapping and source localization. By using the developed system, we measured auditory-evoked fields and localized the current dipoles, demonstrating the effectiveness of the system.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.152-157
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• 2010

We have fabricated the low noise liquid helium(LHe) dewar with a different shape of thermal shield to apply the 64-channel SQUID(Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) gradiometer. The first shape of thermal shield was made of an aluminum plate with a wide width of 100 mm slit and the other shape was modified with a narrow width of 20 mm slit. The two types of dewars were estimated by comparing the thermal noise and the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of magnetocardiography(MCG) using the $1^{st}$ order SQUID gradiometer system cooled each dewar. The white noise was different as a point of the dewar. The noise was increased as close as the edge of dewar, and also increased at the thermal shield with the more wide width slit. The white noise of the dewar with thermal shield of 100 mm slit was 6.5 fT/$Hz^{1/2}$ at the center of dewar and 25 fT/$Hz^{1/2}$ at the edge, and the white noise of the other one was 3.5 - 7 fT/$Hz^{1/2}$. We measured the MCG using 64-channel SQUID gradiometer cooled at each LHe dewar and compared the SNR of MCG signal. The SNR was improved of 10 times at the LHe dewar with a modified thermal shield.