title: Dual-path NMR receiver using double transceiver microcoils.
abstract: We present a fully integrated CMOS dual path front-end receiver for NMR applications. Instead of conventional NMR systems which are using one transceiver coil, we propose a dual-path receiver in which it has two transceiver microcoils. This structure cancels the background signal and consequently improving the sensitivity. Spectral simulations of the dual-path receiver are used to verify cancellation of the background signal in this structure. The front-end receiver contains two differential low-noise amplifiers (LNA), two voltage buffers (for conventional mode), two phase shifters, two variable gain amplifiers (VGA), one differential LNA and voltage buffer at the end. This chain of dual-path receiver is designed for 21 MHz NMR settings. The front-end receiver achieves an input referred noise of 2.7 nV/√Hz and voltage gain of 80 dB. The chip is designed in a 0.13-μm CMOS technology and occupies an area of 1 mm × 2 mm.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pourmodheji
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ghafar-Zadeh
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Magierowski
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004560:Electricity; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted