Highly integrated gradient pulse generator for magnetic resonance imaging system

A gradient pulse generator for magnetic resonance imaging is presented. It has the ability to yield arbitrary gradient pulses on the fly and provide reconfigurable calculations including scaling, axis rotation, pre‐emphasis, and gradient offsetting in real time along X, Y, and Z gradient channels. The versatility has been obtained by incorporating all required digital functions into a single field programmable gate array chip. The development of the hardware is eased by employing a high‐level tool—the System Generator—using the MathWorks model‐based Simulink environment. In addition, an easy‐to‐use method is developed for pre‐emphasis calibration. As expected, the described device is highly integrated, low cost, simple to use and interface, and has been demonstrated successfully in conjunction with a home‐built magnetic resonance system to perform imaging experiments. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part B (Magn Reson Engineering) 39B: 59–63, 2011