The laboratory has been developed aiming at generating and measuring the radiofrequency (RF) and gradient coil (GC) fields commonly used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The laboratory is, therefore, suitable for performing dosimetric investigations, anomalous heating tests on metallic implants and relevant hardware characterisations.

The laboratory comes along with the following features:

• RF power supply with power up to 100 W and frequency values up to 400 MHz;
• Automatic positioning systems for electric/magnetic field probes and TEM cells for probe characterisation;
• A software framework aimed to control the experimental activity effectively;
• Tissue-mimicking materials (phantoms) optimised to mimic the electric properties of human tissues;
• A measurement system aimed to measure the electric properties (electric permittivity and electrical conductivity) of dielectric materials in a frequency range between 4 MHz e 3 GHz;
• A 3-channel gradient coil, analogous to those deployed inside regular MRI scanners, supplied by a transconductance amplifier; the system can generate maximum gradient amplitudes of about 17 mT/m with slew rates of about 65 T/m/s;
• An 8-channel optical fibre temperature measurement system.