Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research

The 4.7-Tesla System has been the workhorse of the NMR Center. Originally installed in 1986, this magnet was touted as "...the most powerful nuclear magnet resonance device of its size in the world..." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 16, 1986]. The imaging console has been continuously updated since its installation and is currently interfaced with a Bruker AVANCE AV spectrometer driven by a LINUX workstation and Bruker ParaVision 4.0 imaging software.

System Features:
2-RF channels
1 kW RF Amplifier
Copely 200A/300V Gradient Amplifiers

Actively Shielded Gradient Sets
30-cm diameter Magnex gradient set [68 mT/m, 220 usec risetime]
15-cm diameter ACUSTAR gradient set [180 mT/m, 120 usec risetime]
12-cm diameter Bruker BGA-12 gradient set [400 mT/m, 100 usec risetime]

RF Coils
Commercial Proton Imaging Probes 20-cm, 15-cm 72-mm, and 36-mm diameters
Active Decoupling for 2-coil operation
Commercial and Homebuilt surface coils and Half PCOS coils

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Bruker AVANCE DRX 7.0-Tesla/20-cm

The 7.0T/20-cm magnet was installed in July 2000. The magnet is shielded with 7 tones of iron plate to reduce the extent of the fringe field. The imaging console is currently interfaced with a Bruker AVANCE DRX spectrometer driven by LINUX workstation and Bruker ParaVision 4.0 imaging software.

System Features:
2-RF channels
500W RF Amplifier
Copley 200A/300V Gradient Amplifiers

Actively Shielded Gradient Sets
12-cm diameter Bruker BGA-12 gradient set [400 mT/m@200A, 100 usec risetime]
5-cm diameter homebuilt microgradient set

RF Coils
Commercial Proton Imaging Probes 72-mm and 36-mm diameters
Active Decoupling for 2-coil operation
Commercial and Homebuilt surface coils

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Bruker AVANCE 500WB 11.7-Tesla/8.9-cm

The 11.7 Tesla magnet was install in July 2001 and is the newest imaging system in the NMR Center. This system features a vertical 89mm actively shielded conducting magnet. The magnet is interfaced with a Bruker AVANCE DRX spectrometer driven by a LINUX workstation and Bruker ParaVision 4.0 imaging software.

The system has a micro gradient set with a maximum gradient strength of 1000 mT/m and has a wide variety of RF probes for imaging fixed samples as wells as mice and rats in vivo.