MaRCoS, an open-source electronic control system for low-field MRI.

Every magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device requires an electronic control system that handles pulse sequences and signal detection and processing. Here we provide details on the architecture and performance of MaRCoS, a MAgnetic Resonance COntrol System developed by an open international community of low-field MRI researchers. MaRCoS is inexpensive and can handle cycle-accurate sequences without hard length limitations, rapid bursts of events, and arbitrary waveforms.

Benchmarking the performance of a low-cost magnetic resonance control system at multiple sites in the open MaRCoS community.

Purpose: To describe the current properties and capabilities of an open-source hardware and software package that is being developed by many sites internationally with the aim of providing an inexpensive yet flexible platform for low-cost MRI.

Methods: This article describes three different setups from 50 to 360 mT in different settings, all of which used the MaRCoS console for acquiring data, and different types of software interface (custom-built GUI or Pulseq overlay) to acquire it.

Results: Images are presented both from phantoms and in vivo from healthy volunteers to demonstrate the image quality that can be obtained from the MaRCoS hardware/software interfaced to different low-field magnets.

A 31-channel integrated "AC/DC" B shim and radiofrequency receive array coil for improved 7T MRI.

Purpose: To test an integrated "AC/DC" array approach at 7T, where B inhomogeneity poses an obstacle for functional imaging, diffusion-weighted MRI, MR spectroscopy, and other applications.

Methods: A close-fitting 7T 31-channel (31-ch) brain array was constructed and tested using combined Rx and ΔB shim channels driven by a set of rapidly switchable current amplifiers. The coil was compared to a shape-matched 31-ch reference receive-only array for RF safety, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and inter-element noise correlation.