This NIH Bridge Grant will result in a conduction cooled, liquid helium free, MRI background magnet for a commercial image guided radiation treatment (IGRT) for cancer treatment. The program will ensure the successful continued commercialization of our customer's image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) system, a vital cancer treatment device now treating patients. The result of the project removes our customer's present system from its dependence on liquid helium, the availability of which is threatened by worldwide shortages in the next few years. The cancer treatment system makes available image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) that delivers gamma radiation in real time to malignant tumors with pinpoint accuracy in spite of organ movement. This is realized with the concurrent real time radiation treatment and MRI imaging. The results of this Bridge Grant through Hyper Tech makes possible the uninterrupted progress of this vital technology by providing a helium-free cryocooled background magnet based on our magnesium diboride (MgB2) superconducting wire. These MgB2 magnet systems will not only significantly lower the initial cost but will reduce on-going service costs of our customer's image guided radiation therapy system. In addition, the magnet system will be safer and less prone to quenching. These magnets will replace the current liquid helium bath dependent niobium titanium (NbTi) superconductor background magnets in the MRI system. During the project we will complete and finalize the modelling and design, complete detail drawings, fabricate the magnet components and the superconductor wire. We will wind and test the individual coils in the system. We will fabricate, assemble, and test the magnet system and deliver it to our customer for integration and testing into their image guided radiation therapy system.
This project will facilitate designing, building, and integrating a conduction cooled MRI background magnet for our customer's commercial image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) system, a vital treatment device for treating cancer patients. It removes the present system from its dependence on liquid helium, the availability of which is threatened by worldwide shortage. The first-of-a-kind prototype of Hyper Tech's helium-free MgB2 based MRI magnet for our customer's IGRT device will come out of this NIH Bridge Grant. This IGRT system for cancer treatment makes available IGRT that delivers gamma radiation in real time to malignant tumors with pinpoint accuracy in spite of organ movement. This is realized with the concurrent real time treatment and MRI imaging. These MgB2 magnet systems will not only significantly lower the initial cost but will reduce on-going service costs of our customer's IGRT systems. In addition, the magnet system will be safer and less prone to quenching and will enable our customer to avoid the predicted shortage and rising cost of liquid helium.
