Shim-on-Chip Design for Microfluidic NMR Detectors

In this contribution we present a novel system for shimming capillary samples such as used in microfluidic NMR probe heads. Due to the small sample size, shimming microliter samples using regular shim coils is complicated. Here we demonstrate the use of a series of parallel wires placed perpendicular to B₀ as a Shim-on-Chip shim system. This is achieved by placing a ribbon flat cable horizontally over the NMR detector, in our case a stripline. The current through each wire of the ribbon cable can be controlled independently employing a 16 channel DAC. This makes for a simple, cheap, and easy to construct alternative to regular shim systems. The Shim-on-Chip is, nevertheless, quite flexible in creating a magnetic field which matches the inhomogeneity of the magnet in one dimension. The capillary sample geometry is well suited for this type of shimming since its length  is much larger than its width. With this Shim-on-Chip system we have reached line widths of 2.2 Hz (at 50%) and 27 Hz (at 0.55%) on a 144 MHz NMR spectrometer without any other room temperature shims. Unlike regular shims, the Shim-on-Chip is located inside the NMR probe. It is always centered on the NMR sample, because of this the shims have an intuitive effect on the line shape. Therefore, the manual shimming is simpler when compared to a regular shim system, as it is difficult to position a microliter sample in the exact center of the shim coils. We furthermore demonstrate the use of a Shim-on-Chip method in a 400 MHz Rapid-Melt DNP system. Decent line widths were achieved even for a sample which is located off-center inside the NMR magnet.