HYPER TECH RESEARCH INC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For 7 tesla full body MRI bore magnet systems, NbTi s
HYPER TECH RESEARCH INC — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $150,291
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- PA13-088
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- OH
- Period
- —
Description
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For 7 tesla full body MRI bore magnet systems, NbTi superconductor wire has reached its limit at 4 K. Above 7T if NbTi is used it requires super cooling of helium to 1.8-2.4 K to achieve 7-11T bore MRI and NMR systems.All these 7T full body MRI background magnets sold by Siemens, Philips, and GE have been manufactured by Aligent (formerly known at Varian before that Magnex). Aligent recently announced that they will no longer accept orders for these 7T magnets and sitedcosts and availability of helium. Some MRI manufacturers have stopped accepting new order for 7T MRIs because of delivery issues and helium shortages. The medical community would like to see 7T MRI's become a clinical system. Hence, the price needs to come down dramatically and in the long run the only real solution is to have conduction cooled magnets to take the helium shortage issue out of the equation. Nb3Sn superconductor wire is the ideal candidate for these applications due to its higher curren