• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2002

We developed a useful SQUID magnetometer for biomagnetic applications, magnetoencepha-logram(MEG) and magnetocardiogram(MCG), etc. The SQUIDs are based on Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUID(DROS). DROS consists of two SQUIDs(signal SQUID and reference SQUID) in series, and a relaxation circuit of an inductor and a resistor. Specially we used single reference junction instead of the reference SQUID. The SQUIDs are based on hysteretic $Nb/AlO_{x}$Nb junctions, fabricated by using a simple four level process. Because DROS magnetometer has large flux-to-voltage transfer coefficient, we can use simple flux-locked loop electronics fur SQUID operation. When the DROS magnetometer was operated inside a magnetically shielded room, its average magnetic field noise was about 3 (equation omitted) at 100 Hz. This noise level is low enough to measure biomagnetic fields. In this paper, we describe noise characteristics of DROS magnetometer, depending on the operation condition . .

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.164-168
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• 2007

We developed a SQUID magnetometer based on Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUID(DROS) for measuring magnetocardiography(MCG). Since DROS provides a 10 times larger flux-to-voltage transfer coefficient than the conventional DC-SQUID, simple flux-locked loop electronics could be used for SQUID operation. Especially, we adopted an external feedback to eliminate the magnetic coupling with adjacent channels. When the DROS magnetometer was operated inside a magnetically shielded room, average magnetic field noise was about 5 $fT/^{\surd}Hz$ at 100 Hz. Using the DROS magnetometer, we constructed a multichannel MCG system. The system consisted of 61 magnetometers are arranged in a hexagonal structure and measures a vertical magnetic-field component to the chest surface. The distance between adjacent channels is 26 mm and the magnetometers cover a circular area with a diameter of 208 mm. We recorded the MCG signals with this system and confirmed the magnetic field distribution and the myocardinal current distribution.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2005

We have developed control electronics to operate flux-locked loop (FLL), and analog signal filters to process FLL outputs for 64-channel Double Relaxation Oscillation SQUID (DROS) magnetocardiography (MCG) system. Control electronics consisting of a preamplifier, an integrator, and a feedback, is compact and low-cost due to larger swing voltage and flux-to-voltage transfer coefficients of DROS than those of dc SQUIDs. Analog signal filter (ASF) serially chained with a high-pass filter having a cut-off frequency of 0.1 Hz, an amplifier having a gain of 100, a low-pass filter of 100 Hz, and a notch filter of 60 Hz makes FLL output suitable for MCG. The noise of a preamplifier in FLL control electronics is $7\;nV/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 1 Hz, $1.5\;nV/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 100 Hz that contributes $6\;fT/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 1 Hz, $1.3\;fT/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 100 Hz in readout electronics, and the noise of ASF electronics is $150\;{\mu}V/{\surd}\;Hz$ equivalent to $0.13\;fT/{\surd}\;Hz$ within the range of $1{\sim}100\;Hz$. When DROSs are connected to readout electronics inside a magnetically shielded room, the noise of 64-channel DROS system is $10\;fT/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 1 Hz, $5\;fT/{\surd}\;Hz$ at 100 Hz on the average, low enough to measure human MCG.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2006

We have developed a second-order double relaxation oscillation SQUID(DROS) gradiometer with a baseline of 35 mm, and constructed a poorly magnetically-shielded room(MSR) with an aluminum layer and permalloy layers for magnetocardiography(MCG). The 2nd-order DROS gradiometer has a noise level of 20 $fT/{\surd}Hz$ at 1 Hz and 8 $fT/{\surd}Hz$ at 200 Hz inside the heavily-shielded MSR with a shielding factor of $10^3$ at 1 Hz and $10^4-10^5$ at 100 Hz. The poorly-shielded MSR, built of a 12-mm-thick aluminum layer and 4-6 permalloy layers of 0.35 mm thickness, is 2.4mx2.4mx2.4m in size, and has a shielding factor of 40 at 1 Hz, $10^4$ at 100 Hz. Our 64-channel second-order gradiometer MCG system consists of 64 2nd-order DROS gradiometers, flux-locked loop electronics, and analog signal processors. With the 2nd-order DROS gradiometers and flux-locked loop electronics installed inside the poorly-shielded MSR, and with the analog signal processor installed outside it, the noise level was measured to be 20 $fT/{\surd}Hz$ at 1 Hz and 8 $fT/{\surd}Hz$ at 200 Hz on the average even though the MSR door is open. This result leads to a low noise level, low enough to obtain a human MCG at the same level as that measured in the heavily-shielded MSR. However, filters or active shielding is needed fur clear MCG when there is large low-frequency noise from heavy air conditioning or large ac power consumption near the poorly-shielded MSR.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.16
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• pp.55-55
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• 2006

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.15
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• pp.54-54
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• 2005

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2003

We designed and constructed a multichannel superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer system to measure magnetic fields from the human brain. We used a new type of SQUID, the double relaxation oscillation SQUID (DROS). With high flux-to-voltage transfers of the DROS, about 10 times larger than the dc SQUIDs, simple flux-locked loop circuits could be used for SQUID operation. Also the large modulation voltage of the DROS, typically being 100 $mutextrm{V}$, enabled stable flux-locked loop operation against the thermal offset voltage drift of the preamplifier. The magnetometers were fabricated using the Nb/AlOx/Nb junction technology. The SQUID system consists of 37 signal magnetometers, distributed on a semispherical surface, and 11 reference channels were installed to pickup background noises. External feedback was used to eliminate the magnetic coupling with the adjacent channels. The liquid helium dewar has a capacity of 29 L and boil-off rate of about 4 L/d with the total 48 channel insert. The magnetometer system has an average noise level of 3 fT/√Hz at 100 Hz, inside a shielded loon, and was applied to measure auditory-evoked fields.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2005

Contamination of soils and groundwater by leakage of petroleum compounds from underground storage tanks (USTs) has become great environmental issues. Conventional methods such as soil vapor extraction (SVE) used for the remediation of unsaturated soils contaminated with volatile organic compounds might not be applied for the removal of semi-volatile organic compounds such as diesel fuels and PCBs, which have low volatility and high hydrophobicity. The objective of this study is to develop a hot air injection method to remove semi-volatile compounds. Additionally, operation parameters such as temperature, air flow rate, and water content are evaluated. Experimental results show that diesel ranged organics (DROs) are removed in the order of volatility of organic compounds. As expected, removal efficiency of organics is highly dependent on the temperature. It is considered that more than $90\%$ of organic contaminants whose carbon numbers range between 17 and 22 can be removed efficiently by the hot air injection-extraction method (modified SVE) over the $100^{\circ}C$. It is also found that increased air flow rate resulted in high removal rate of contaminants. However, air flow rate over 40 cc/min is not effective for the operation aspects, due to mass transfer limitation on the volatilization rate of the contaminants. The effect of the water content on the decane removal is minimal, but some components show large dependence on the removal efficiency with increasing water content.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.16
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• pp.50-50
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• 2006

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.17-18
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• 2001