Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses)

Description

Aarhus University wants to buy a setup with arbitrary waveform generation PCIe cards for research purposes from Spectrum Instrumentation GmbH. The aim of the research is overall to facilitate research with Aarhus University's magnetic resonance imaging facilities placed at Aarhus University Hospital I a pursuit of applications on radio frequency parallel transmission, electromagnetic hyperthermia and magnetic resonance imaging guided focused ultrasound. Aarhus University collaborates with Physikalisch-Technische Bundeanstalt in Berlin, Germany, on developing a parallel transmission hardware prototype, which will be installed at Aarhus University Hospital 's magnetic resonance imaging system. The multichannel arbitrary waveform generation by Spectrum Instrumentation turns a digital/computed signal into an analog (radio frequency, low-voltage) signal which is amplified and supplied to the parallel transmission hardware prototype. Hyperthermia treatment of deep seated brain tumors facilitated by radio-frequency parallel transmission in magnetic resonance imaging has been a research topic for the past 4 years. The project is now at a stage where a parallel transmission hardware prototype together with experts from Physikalisch-Technische Bundeanstalt is being developped. The radio frequency parallel transmission is a chain of events. Firstly, an (arbitrary waveform) signal is computed by means of a computational, physical modelling software, and advanced optimisation algorithms. This signal is digital and secondly must be converted to an analog signal, before, thirdly, being amplified by radio-frequency amplifiers and finally passed on to the parallel transmission hardware prototype. The nature of the problem lies in the radio frequency regime of the signal and the fact we have multiple (16) channels that must be synchronised completely. This is a non-trivial task. Spectrum Instrumentation has a flexible solution with 2-channel PCI Express cards, of which we will buy 8 of, which plugs into a standard computer framework. There is a hub-card that synchronises the output signals and a software to run the cards and do debugging with. The system can be extended with additional cards and can be transferred to a new computer framework if wished for. Cards can be replaced individually if breakdown happens. However, the major reason for choosing Spectrum Instrumentation is the nature of the collaboration project taking place. This project being a collaboration between Aarhus University/Aarhus University Hospital and Physikalisch-Technische Bundeanstalt, however, outline two important demands for the choice of multichannel arbitrary waveform generation system that fulfills the project purposes. Using the multichannel arbitrary waveform generators with confidence requires training. Physikalisch-Technische Bundeanstalt is currently using a setup Spectrum Instrumentation and can therefor provide support to Aarhus University on generating and interpreting arbitrary waveform data.