An optically powered CMOS tracking system for 3 T magnetic resonance environment

In this work, a fully optical Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) based catheter tracking system designed for 3 T Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environment is presented. The system aims to solve the Radio Frequency (RF) induced heating problem present in conventional wired catheter tracking systems used in MRI. It is based on an integrated circuit, consisting of a receiver and an optical power supply unit. The optical power supply unit includes a single on-chip photodiode and a DC-DC converter that boosts the low photodiode voltage output to voltages greater than 1.5 V. Through an optically driven switch, the accumulated charge on an a storage capacitor is transferred to the rest of the system. This operation is novel in the way that it is fully optical and the switch control is done through modulation of the applied light. An on-chip local oscillator signal for the receiver is avoided by application of an RF signal that is generated by the MRI machine at the receiving period. The signals received by a micro-coil antenna are processed by the on-chip direct conversion receiver. The processed signal is then transferred, also optically, to the outside world for tracking purposes. The frequency encoding method is used for MRI tracking. Operation with various levels of external optical power does not generate noticeble temperature increase in the system. The overall system is successfully tested in a 3 T MRI machine to demonstrate its full operation.