World’s First MRI-Safe Linear Encoder for Medical Applications Announced

A company specialized in producing fiber optic kinetic sensors, has developed a first-of-a-kind passive, optical, non-electronic, high-precision encoder for use in medical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

The encoder is both immune and invisible to electromagnetic fields, and is the world’s first commercially-available MRI-Safe linear position sensor system for OEM motion control applications.


The MR303 encoder was developed by Micronor (Newbury Park, CA, USA), and can be used for the measurement of extremely small magnetic fields, such as in and around the MRI bore, without producing any imaging artifacts. The encoder can be used to enhance the performance of existing MRI systems, but will also enable the development of new MRI applications such as cradle position monitoring, MRI robots, and MRI phantom training organs, and the development of new medical devices.

The MR303 uses an innovative optical technique to connect a sensor to a remote controller via a duplex fiber optic link. The system uses coarse wavelength division multiplexing with two lasers representing the A and B quadrature signals. An encoder film strip passes through the MR303 optical read head, modulating the A and B optical signals. The remote MR302-2 Controller provides both the optical input to the MR303 Sensor and processes the modulated optical return signal.

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