Design and evaluation of a modular driver for piezoelectric motors in an MRI environment
Piezoelectric ultrasonic motors are integral to many MRI‑guided robotic and interventional systems due to their non‑magnetic construction and precise control. However, conventional motor drivers often use signal waveforms that introduce broadband electromagnetic interference (EMI), degrading image quality. We propose a custom, modular driver that generates clean signals for piezoelectric motor actuation with the aim of showing that high-fidelity drive waveforms can substantially mitigate EMI in clinical MRI applications. The driver was evaluated against a commonly used conventional driver via signal‑to‑noise ratio (SNR) and image distortion measurements taken of an ultrasonic motor actuated next to a grid phantom in the bore of a 3T MRI.
Advisor: Professor Greg Fischer (WPI)
Committee: Professor Loris Fichera (WPI) and Professor Giovanni Pittiglio (WPI)
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