Giovannetti Giulio, De Zanche Nicola
Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council (CNR-IFC), Pisa, Italy.
Department of Oncology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
HardwareX. 2025 May 30;22:e00659. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00659. eCollection 2025 Jun.
This work describes an open-source design for decoupled dual-loop radio frequency (RF) probes which are common tools in the RF lab. In magnetic resonance (MR) applications dual-loop probes are used to measure the tuning frequency and quality factor of RF coils and associated electronics. Traditional dual-loop probes, however, are delicate and not readily available commercially because they are made using semi-rigid or hand-formable coaxial cable, and they require skill and experience to build well. Our dual-loop probe design is tough, reliable, and can be mass-produced inexpensively, thus allowing new and established labs to obtain these probes with minimal effort. We used two overlapped shielded loops fabricated with multilayer printed circuit board technology. Design files are published under an open-hardware license. The printed probe achieves the required levels of durability and high isolation (better than 50 dB up to 500 MHz) which are equivalent to those achieved with traditional probes, and much more resistant to degradation.
本文介绍了一种用于解耦双环射频（RF）探头的开源设计，这种探头是射频实验室中的常用工具。在磁共振（MR）应用中，双环探头用于测量射频线圈及相关电子设备的调谐频率和品质因数。然而，传统的双环探头很脆弱，并且由于是使用半刚性或可手工成型的同轴电缆制作，在商业上不易获得，而且制作精良需要技巧和经验。我们的双环探头设计坚固、可靠，并且可以低成本大规模生产，从而使新老实验室都能轻松获得这些探头。我们使用多层印刷电路板技术制作了两个重叠的屏蔽环。设计文件根据开源硬件许可发布。这种印刷探头实现了所需的耐用性和高隔离度（在高达500 MHz的频率下优于50 dB），与传统探头相当，并且更耐降解。
