Philips, MagCorp Unite to Investigate New Superconducting MRI Magnets

Philips began a research agreement with U.S. magnet solutions provider MagCorp to study and explore superconducting magnets for MRI scanners that don’t need cooling to ultra-low temperatures (-452 °F or -269 °C) using liquid helium.
 
Sustainable and lower cost alternatives to helium-cooled MRI magnets could help make advanced MR imaging more accessible in more diverse settings. They could also lower radiology department capital and operating costs by decreasing energy consumption and reducing dependence on an increasingly scarce natural resource.
 
Operating at temperatures closer to ambient room temperature and eliminating helium could also reduce MRI scanner size, weight, and cost, opening its diagnostic and functional imaging capabilities to a wider range of patients.
 
The partnership will focus on characterizing and demonstrating feasibility of superconducting materials able to operate at higher temperatures than today’s niobium-based superconductors. Like helium, niobium is also a scarce element—the new materials being investigated are reportedly based on more abundant elements.
 
The team will also determine the steps needed to commercialize the new materials as well as the technology needed for their use in MRI scanners.
 
“Florida State University’s MagLab, part of the U.S. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, is home to many of the world’s leading researchers on novel superconducting materials that don’t require liquid helium temperatures to operate. Philips has decades of MR scanner design and development experience, including most recently the launch of the BlueSeal magnet technology,” Josh Hilderbrand, director and head of MRI magnet R&D at Philips, told the press. “Combining these resources with MagCorp’s research facilitation services will help leverage the latest technology to accelerate access and availability of MRI to more patients and healthcare providers.”

By introducing BlueSeal magnet tech in 2018, Philips already has commercially available non-venting MRI scanners in widespread use. Once charged with a small amount of helium (7 liters instead of a conventional scanner’s 1,500 liters), they are sealed and operate without needing further helium for the rest of their operational life.
 
“MagCorp is proud of this partnership, which brings together Philips’ game-changing BlueSeal magnet technology and the FSU MagLab’s unrivaled knowledge base about superconductors that can operate in a helium-free environment,” added Jeff Whalen, director of MagCorp. “Combining Philips’ forward-thinking approach with FSU MagLab’s scientists, who have a wealth of relevant expertise in the application of new superconductors, means Philips will be in the best position to develop innovations around this technology,” Whalen said.