Recently, there has been considerable interest within the magnetic resonance (MR) research community in utilizing integrated circuit (IC) technology. This interest stems from the ability to integrate entire MR spectrometers into application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that have a small physical footprint of around a square millimeter. The integration of MR spectrometers into chips opens up possibilities for portable MR detection with a wide range of ap-plications, spanning from material science to personalized medicine. Furthermore, this integration enables truly broadband MR detection.
In addition to the miniaturized conventional architectures, chip-integrated spectrometers commonly employ voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). These VCOs introduce new and intriguing possibilities due to their operating principle. For instance, they allow for dead time-free detection of transient sample magnetization, as well as operation at exceptionally high frequencies exceeding 100 GHz.
In this invited talk, we will present an overview of the latest advancements in chip-assisted MR detection. The talk will cover both nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron para-magnetic resonance (EPR) techniques, ranging from very low frequencies around 10 MHz to terahertz (THz) frequencies. The discussion will cover miniaturized conventional architectures as well as the dead time-free VCO-based detection.