ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / RF Communication (COMMS) systems where receivers and transmitters are in motion must be proven rigorously over an array of natural RF link perturbations such as Carrier Doppler shift, Signal Doppler shift, delay, path loss and noise. These perturbations play significant roles in COMMS systems involving satellites, aircraft, UAVs, missiles, targets and ground stations. In these applications, COMMS system devices must also be tested against increasingly sophisticated intentional and unintentional interference, which must result in negligible impact on quality of service. Field testing and use of traditional test and measurement equipment will need to be substantially augmented with physics-compliant channel emulation equipment that broadens the scope, depth and coverage of such tests, while decreasing R&D and test costs and driving in quality. This paper describes dynamic link emulation driven by advanced antenna and motion modeling, detailed propagation models and link budget methods for realistic, nominal and worst-case hardware-in-the-loop test and verification.

Atherosclerotic plaques in the bifurcation of the carotid artery vessels can pose a significant stroke risk from stenosis, thrombosis and emboli, or plaque rupture. However, the possibility of the latter depends on the structure of the plaque and its stability. So far, the assessment of such depositions, and the evaluation of the risk they pose, is not satisfactory with 3 Tesla black blood imaging. It is expected that the SNR increase at 7 Tesla, together with an appropriate and patient-safe RF coil, will result in higher resolution images that would help in better assessing the composition of atherosclerotic plaques in vessel walls. A custom-built neck array was designed and constructed, with the aim of investigating the benefits of the higher field strength using DANTE-prepared black blood imaging. A 4-channel transmit array was designed to generate the required <b>B</b>^&plus;<sub style='position: relative; left: -.5em;'>1</sub> field for the DANTE module to be used. A separate close fitting 4-channel receive array was preferred for improved SNR and parallel (receive) imaging. Geometric, active, passive as well as preamp decoupling schemes were employed for adequate isolation between the arrays and their channels. Electromagnetic simulation software, Semcad X (SPEAG, Zurich), was used for safety assessment with human phantoms (Virtual population). The <b>E</b> fields for 1 W transmission per channel were calculated for each element for a worst case SAR estimation. The transmission power limits per channel were set according to the 10g SAR limit set in IEC 60601. For simulation validation, temperature measurements and surface heat mapping were performed on a meat phantom. Finally, a healthy male subject was scanned using a protocol consisting of <b>B</b>₁ mapping, RF shimming at an ROI, and 2D and 3D DANTE prepared Gradient Echo (GRE). The worst-case heating scenario, as defined in the methods section, generated a maximum local SAR of 7.65 W/kg for 1 Watt per channel input. Thus, for 1st level mode (20W/kg max), the power limit was set at 2.6 W per channel. The heating profile was similar to that simulated and the measured temperature increase was within a &plusmn;10&percnt; margin relative to the simulation. The global SAR power limit per channel was found to be higher (i.e. more allowed power) than the worst case local SAR power limit, and thus did not impose additional power penalty. The resolution achieved was 0.6 mm isotropic for the 3D protocol and 0.6 by 0.6 by 2.5 mm for the 2D protocol. The average SNR was measured within the vessel wall location of the two carotid arteries and found to be 27&plusmn;6 for the DANTE images and for the static tissue closer to the skin the SNR was 55&plusmn;2. In conclusion, a 4Tx/4Rx coil was designed to target the carotid arteries operating under pTx mode and a black blood imaging sequence was implemented for blood signal suppression and vessel wall imaging. The initial results from the subject and phantom imaging show satisfactory blood suppression and spatial resolution.