Granted Patent B2

US 12,386,345 · App. 17/347,564 · Granted Aug 12, 2025

Inventors: Johann Sukkau (Herzogenaurach, DE); Mario Zeller (Erlangen, DE)

Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG

G05B23/0283A61B5/055G01R31/00G06N3/044

Abstract

Claims (41)

1. A module for use in a magnetic resonance apparatus, the module comprising:

a flexible surface coil of the magnetic resonance apparatus;

at least one flex sensor configured to detect values of at least one parameter relating to the flexing that acts upon the module, the flex sensor embedded in a planar and/or blanket-shaped layer of the flexible surface coil of the magnetic resonance apparatus;

wherein the at least one parameter is usable for predicting a potential failure of the flexible surface coil of the magnetic resonance apparatus on the basis thereof.

2. The module of claim 1 , further comprising a cable, a cooling line, or a combination thereof.

3. The module of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor embedded in the planar and/or blanket-shaped layer of the flexible surface coil of the magnetic resonance apparatus, the temperature sensor configured to detect values relating to relating to the heat that acts upon the module.

4. A system comprising:

a module for use in a magnetic resonance apparatus, the module comprising at least one flex sensor configured to detect values of at least one module parameter of the module relating to the flexing that acts upon the module, the at least one flex sensor embedded in a planar and/or blanket-shaped layer of the module, wherein the at least one module parameter is usable for predicting a potential failure of the module on the basis thereof, wherein the module is a flexible surface coil;

an evaluation unit;

a transfer unit configured to transfer the detected values of the at least one module parameter to the evaluation unit, and

wherein the evaluation unit is configured to predict a potential failure of the module based on the at least one module parameter.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to receive values of module parameters from modules of various magnetic resonance apparatuses.

6. The system of claim 4 , further comprising at least one additional sensor outside of the at least one module for detecting the at least one module parameter.

7. A method for predicting a possible failure of a module, the method comprising:

detecting, by at least one flex sensor of the module, values of at least one module parameter of the module relating to a flexing that acts on the module;

analyzing, by an evaluation unit, the at least one module parameter; and

outputting a prediction value of a potential failure of the module,

wherein the module is a flexible magnetic resonance coil, the flexible magnetic resonance coil being a flexible surface coil, wherein the at least one flex sensor is embedded in a planar and/or blanket-shaped layer of the flexible surface coil.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the analyzing comprises applying a model, a trained function, or the model and the trained function to input data,

wherein the input data is based on the at least one module parameter.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the analyzing comprises applying the trained function to the input data,

wherein at least one parameter of the trained function is based on a comparison with module parameters that have been detected for other modules.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the trained function has been trained on detected module parameters and points in time of failure of defective modules.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the trained function has been trained exclusively on the detected module parameters and the points in time of failure of the defective modules.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the trained function is based on a neural network.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the neural network is a long short-term memory (LSTM) or gated recurrent unit (GRU) network.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the model, the trained function, or the model and the trained function are independent of:

a number of connection procedures of the module to other parts of a magnetic resonance apparatus;

a duration of at least one flexing of the module;

a degree of the flexing of the module;

a change over time of a degree of the flexing of the module;

a point in time of commissioning the module;

an operating time of the module; or

any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the model, the trained function, or the model and the trained function are independent of the duration of the at least one flexing of the module, the duration being a cumulative duration.

16. In a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions executable by an evaluation unit to predict a possible failure of a module, the instructions comprising:

detecting, by at least one flex sensor of the module embedded in a planar and/or blanket-shaped layer of the flexible surface coil of the magnetic resonance apparatus, values of at least one module parameter of the module;

analyzing the at least one module parameter; and

outputting a prediction value of a potential failure of the module,

wherein the module is a flexible magnetic resonance coil, the flexible magnetic resonance coil being a flexible surface coil,

wherein the at least one module parameter describes a flexing that acts on the module.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (44)