Ultra-Low Noise Amplifier Design for Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of an ultra-low noise Cascode LNA to enhance MRI system sensitivity, achieving significant noise figure reduction and stability up to 6 GHz.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Cascode LNA design with optimized matching and protection circuits, demonstrating improved SNR for MRI applications.

Findings

Noise figure of 0.45 dB at 32 MHz

Gain of 11.6 dB

Unconditionally stable up to 6 GHz

Abstract

This paper demonstrates designing and developing of an Ultra-Low Noise Amplifier which should potentially increase the sensitivity of the existing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems. The Design of the LNA is fabricated and characterized including matching and input high power protection circuits. The estimate improvement of SNR of the LNA in comparison to room temperature operation is taken here. The Cascode amplifier topology is chosen to be investigated for high performance Low Noise amplifier design and for the fabrication. The fabricated PCB layout of the Cascode LNA is tested by using measurement instruments Spectrum Analyser and Vector Network analyzer. The measurements of fabricated PCB layout of the Cascode LNA at room temperature had the following performance, the operation frequency is 32 MHz, the noise figure is 0.45 dB at source impedance 50 {\Omega}, the gain is 11.6 dB, the output return loss is 21.1 dB, and the input return loss 0.12 dB and it is unconditionally stable for up to 6 GHz band. The goal of the research is achieved where the Cascode LNA had improvement of SNR.