CMOS-based Portable NMR/MRI Microsystems

by Shuhao Fan, Qi Zhou, Ka-Meng Lei, Rui P. Martins, Pui-In Mak

Overview

This book describes the complete design of CMOS-based multi-nuclear NMR/MRI microsystems. The authors emphasize optimizing semiconductor chip design to enhance the performance of compact CMOS-based NMR/MRI systems. They also discuss the integrated circuit design of customized modules, such as 3-D gradient controllers specifically for MRI, high-resolution multi-phase generators for advanced composite radio-frequency excitation pulse synthesis, etc. The integration of these specific modules not only drives system innovation but also expands functionality.

• Discusses developments in CMOS integrated circuit design for miniaturized NMR/MRI platforms over recent decades;
• Focuses on key integrated circuit design considerations for transceivers in compact NMR systems;
• Details the design of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for a miniaturized 3-D MRI platform and a compact multi-nuclei NMR/MRI system, both featuring a portable magnet, for enhanced accessibility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031914461
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	07/18/2025
Pages:	90
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shuhao Fan received her B.Sc. in Electronic and Information Engineering from Northeast Forestry University, China, in 2016, and her M.Sc. in IC Design Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Macau, Macau, in 2024. Her research focuses on analog CMOS circuit design for portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems and miniaturized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) platforms.

Qi Zhou received the B.Sc. degree in instrument science and engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2017, and the M.Sc. degree in electronics and communications engineering from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, in 2019.

He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) with the University of Macau, Macau. His current research interests include portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems and related applications.

Ka-Meng Lei received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronic engineering (EEE) and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) from the University of Macau, Macau, in 2012 and 2016, respectively. He has served as an Assistant professor at the University of Macau since 2019. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2017 to 2019, where he was involved in developing the high-resolution portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer.

Ka-Meng Lei has published 40+ refereed papers. He co-authored one book Handheld Total Chemical and Biological Analysis Systems: Bridging NMR, Digital Microfluidics, and Semiconductors (Springer’18), and two book chapter Micro-NMR on CMOS for Biomolecular Sensing (Springer’18) and Ultra-Low-Voltage Clock References (Springer’23). His current research interests include ultralow voltage analog circuit techniques, sensors and analog front-end interfaces, and high-resolution portable NMR platforms.

Rui P. Martins received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1992, and has been with that Department since October 1980. From 1992, he has been on leave from University of Lisbon and with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macao, China, where he is a Chair-Professor since Aug. 2013. His research interests are on analog and mixed-signal VLSI design and has authored or co-authored 900+ publications, including 10 books, 12 book chapters, 50 Patents, 300+ papers in scientific journals and 400+ in conference proceedings. He was the Founding Director of the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI, between 2011 and 2022, and is currently the Director of the Institute of Microelectronics, both at the University of Macau, Macao, China.

Prof. Rui Martins is an IEEE Fellow, received an Author Recognition Award at the 70 years of ISSCC, in 2023, as a Top Contributor with more than 50 papers, and 3 Medals from Macao Government in 1999, 2001 and 2021. Since July 2010 he is an Academician with the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, Portugal.

Pui-In Mak received the Ph.D. degree from University of Macau (UM), Macao, China, in 2006. He is currently Professor at UM Faculty of Science and Technology – ECE Department, Director at the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI and Deputy Director (Research) at the Institute of Microelectronics. His research interests are on analog and radio-frequency (RF) circuits and systems for wireless and multidisciplinary innovations.

His involvements with IEEE are: Editorial Board Member of IEEE Press (’14-’16); Member of Board-of-Governors of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (’09-’11); Senior Editor of IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems (’14-’15); Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (’18-), IEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters (’17-), IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I (’10-’11, ’14-’15) and II (’10-’13). He is/was the TPC Vice Co-Chair of ASP-DAC (’16), TPC Member of A-SSCC (’13-’16,’19), ESSCIRC (’16-’17) and ISSCC (’17-’19). He is/was Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (’14-’15) and IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (’17-’18). He was the chairman of the Distinguished Lecturer Program of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (’18-’19).

Table of Contents

Ch 1: Introduction.- Ch 2: State-of-the-Art ASIC for micro-NMR Transceiver: Architecture and Design Considerations.- Ch 3: A Miniaturized 3-D-MRI Scanner Featuring a High-Voltage SOI ASIC.- Ch 4: A Miniature Multi-Nuclei NMR/MRI Platform with a High-Voltage SOI ASIC.- Ch 5: Non-Invasive Object Reconstruction and Flow Analysis.- Ch 6: Conclusion and Outlook.