A Design of CORDIC-based Magnetic Resonance RF Pulse Generator

  • Liu-Ying ,
  • LuZhiHao ,
  • lvHaiLong ,
  • ZhangHaoWei
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  • School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China

Received date: 2025-10-10

  Revised date: 2025-11-20

  Accepted date: 2025-12-22

  Online published: 2025-12-22

Abstract

The RF pulse generator in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems plays a crucial role in determining imaging quality. Traditional direct digital synthesis (DDS) techniques rely on large-capacity lookup tables to achieve high precision, which results in excessive consumption of on-chip block random access memory (BRAM) resources and limits flexibility. This paper proposes a design for a magnetic resonance radiofrequency pulse generator based on the coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) algorithm. By implementing a custom CORDIC core within a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), it achieves digital modulation of the radiofrequency signal's frequency, phase and amplitude. Combined with a Zynq-7000 system-on-chip (SoC), this design provides a highly integrated and low-power hardware architecture. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed pulse generator can output RF pulses with a frequency resolution of 0.046 Hz and a phase resolution of 0.005 5˚, Moreover, the BRAM resources occupied by the four channels are reduced by approximately 21.4% compared to the traditional DDS solution. This design offers a feasible solution for achieving miniaturization and high performance in the RF front-end of NMR instruments. 

Cite this article

Liu-Ying , LuZhiHao , lvHaiLong , ZhangHaoWei . A Design of CORDIC-based Magnetic Resonance RF Pulse Generator[J]. Chinese Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 0 : 0 . DOI: 10.11938/cjmr2025-3183

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