• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.20-23
• /
• 2013

For sensitive measurements of micro-Tesla nuclear magnetic resonance (${\mu}T$-NMR) signal, a low-noise superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) system is needed. We have fabricated a liquid He dewar for an SQUID having a large diameter for the pickup coil. The initial test of the SQUID system showed much higher low-frequency magnetic noise caused by the thermal magnetic noise of the aluminum plates used for the vapor-cooled thermal shield material. The frequency dependence of the noise spectrum showed that the noise increases with the decrease of frequency. This behavior could be explained from a two-layer model; one generating the thermal noise and the other one shielding the thermal noise by eddy-current shielding. And the eddy-current shielding effect is strongly dependent on the frequency through the skin-depth. To minimize the loop size for the fluctuating thermal noise current, we changed the thermal shield material into insulated thin Cu mesh. The magnetic noise of the SQUID system became flat down to 0.1 Hz with a white noise of 0.3 $fT/{\surd}Hz$, including the other noise contributions such as SQUID electronics and magnetically shielded room, etc, which is acceptable for low-noise ${\mu}T$-NMR experiments.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.154-163
• /
• 2006

A 64-channel magnetocardiogram (MCG) system using low-noise superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) planar gradiometers was developed for the measurements of cardiac magnetic fields generated by the heart electric activity. Owing to high flux-to-voltage transfers of double relaxation oscillation SQUID (DROS) sensors, the flux-locked loop electronics for SQUID operation could be made simpler than that of conventional DC SQUIDs, and the SQUID control was done automatically through a fiber-optic cable. The pickup coils are first-order planar gradiometers with a baseline of 4 em. The insert has 64 planar gradiometers as the sensing channels and were arranged to measure MCG field components tangential to the chest surface. When the 64-channel insert was in operation everyday, the average boil-off rate of the dewar was 3.6 Lid. The noise spectrum of the SQUID planar gradiometer system was about 5 fT$_{rms}$/$\checkmark$Hz at 100 Hz, operated inside a moderately shielded room. The MCG measurements were done at a sampling rate of 500 Hz or 1 kHz, and realtime display of MCG traces and heart rate were displayed. After the acquisition, magnetic field mapping and current mapping could be done. From the magnetic and current information, parameters for the diagnosis of myocardial ischemia were evaluated to be compared with other diagnostic methods.