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Modular, IC-based arrays for broadband NMR-based metabolite screeening

Subject Area Microsystems
Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
Term from 2018 to 2023
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389084717
 
Final Report Year 2024

Final Report Abstract

The long-term vision of screeMR is to perform the necessary research to be able to remove the instrumentation-related limitations of MR-based metabolite screening, which will allow researchers in the field to fully benefit from the intrinsic advantages of MR spectroscopy over competing methods, including its unmatched specificity and complete non-invasiveness. To proceed towards this long-term vision, screeMR tackled today’s key limitations of existing MR screening hardware by utilizing advanced cleanroom manufacturing techniques in combination with integrated circuit technologies. This approach allowed us to research new modular concepts for large-scale MR coil arrays with significant advantages compared to state-of-theart systems. To achieve modularity, a thorough theoretical investigation of small sets of coupled MR detectors was carried out, especially with respect to the preconditions of all MR experiments, namely sensitivity and spectral linewidth, in order to identify suitable concepts for modular building blocks of even larger MR detector arrays. Based on these theoretical considerations, we combined advanced, very scalable cleanroom manufacturing processes and nanometer-scaled IC technologies to achieve functional hardware prototypes of the most promising modular building block candidates. The use of customdesigned application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) was one of the key enablers for the resulting modular MR platform because, apart from the fact that it provides the required electrical performance at a suitable form factor and power consumption, it provides probably the only solution which can operate inside the high magnetic field strengths >10 T of NMR spectrometers with very small chip-to-coil-distances, which are required for a broadband operation without problems associated with reflections on long cable interconnects. Overall, through theoretical investigations and subsequent miniaturized and scalable hardware implementations, which make consequent use of cleanroom manufacturing and integrated circuit technologies, the screeMR project paved the way toward future MR-based reliable, highthroughput, high-sensitivity, nondestructive, and noninvasive metabolomic studies of biological systems. Therefore, on a medium-term time scale, by largely speeding up the throughput of MR-based analytics while preserving its unmatched specificity, the findings of the screeMR project aim to completely remove the need for current expensive hyphenated screening methods, which still present the state-of-the-art today. With this achieved, the reduced complexity and cost associated with screening experiments will make it an attractive solution for a much larger range of applications than is imaginable today.

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