SFB 855:  Magnetoelectric Composites - Future Biomagnetic Interfaces

• Subject Area: Materials Science and Engineering ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering ; Medicine ; Physics
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 101024871

The goal of this Collaborative Research Centre is to develop an innovative, uncooled and unshielded biomagnetic interface. Mainly to address medical questions those interfaces will be used to unidirectional record brain and heart functions by their corresponding magnetic fields. Such a biomagnetic interface - implemented using innovative magnetoelectric composites and new signal processing techniques - allows for medical applications in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetocardiography (MCG), which are not possible with conventional sensors. The reason for this is that those innovative sensors don’t need any cooling and that it will be possible to record the direction of the magnetic field using those sensors.
The quality of the interface mainly depends on how the inverse problem will be solved. By this it will be possible to deduce and localise the underlying electrical activity in the heart and brain from the corresponding spatial distribution of the recorded magnetic fields, leading to a spatial correlation of brain and heart functions. Despite a higher technical effort such magnetic techniques provide major advantages in comparison to electrical measurements (EEG or ECG). A better spatial resolution together with the information regarding the direction, which is included in the magnetic field, provides the possibility to detect signals from deeper areas and by this gain additionally medically relevant data.
The possibility to solve the inverse problem itself depends on the availability of highly sensitive magnetic sensor arrays for the detection of very small magnetic fields. Amplitudes in magnetocardiography are in the picotesla range, in magnetoencephalography in femtotesla range. It is intended to develop suitable magnetic sensors by using nanoscale magnetoelectric composites.
Within the framework of this Collaborative Research Centre the physical principles of those composites made of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases, the fabrication as magnetic field sensors and implementation in nano-/microsystems including the electronic activation and read-out and finally the validation on the basis of ongoing medical research projects in neurology, neuropediatry and cardiology will be interdisciplinary studied. To reach the envisaged goal research groups from physics, materials science, electrical engineering and medicine of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (Kiel) together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (Itzehoe) will closely collaborate.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Magnetoelektrische 2-2 Dünnschichtkomposite (Project Head Quandt, Eckhard )
• A02 - Gasphasenabscheidung von magnetoelektrischen 0-3 Nanokompositen (Project Head Faupel, Franz )
• A03 - Magnetoelektrische 1-3 Komposite (Project Heads Föll, Helmut ;  Wagner, Bernhard )
• A04 - Magnetoelektrische Heterostrukturen und Bauelemente mit epitaktischen Grenzflächen (Project Head Kohlstedt, Hermann )
• A05 - Herstellung von vertikal freistehenden magnetoelektrischen Kompositen (Project Head Adelung, Rainer )
• B01 - Grenzflächenstruktur und -magnetismus auf atomarer Skala (Project Heads Berndt, Richard ;  Kröger, Jörg )
• B02 - IN situ Streuuntersuchungen an 2-2 Grenzflächen und Nanokompositen (Project Heads Magnussen, Olaf ;  Murphy, Bridget )
• B03 - Kopplungsmechanismen an magnetoelektrischen Grenzflächen (Project Heads Bauer, Michael ;  Kipp, Lutz ;  Rossnagel, Kai )
• B04 - Berechnung der atomaren und elektronischen Strukturen der Grenzflächen (Project Head Pehlke, Eckhard )
• B05 - Effects of magnetic domains in magneto-electric composite materials (Project Head McCord, Jeffrey )
• C01 - Modellierung integrierter Sensoren und Sensorarrays (Project Head Gerken, Martina )
• C02 - NEMS/MEMS-Herstellung von Sensoren und Sensorarrays (Project Heads Quandt, Eckhard ;  Wagner, Bernhard )
• C03 - Sensormodellierung sowie elektronische Signalverarbeitung (Project Head Knöchel, Reinhard )
• C04 - Digitale Sensor-Signalverarbeitung (Project Head Heute, Ulrich )
• C07 - Controlled Magnetic Field Sensors based on the ƒ´E-Effect (Project Heads Adelung, Rainer ;  Faupel, Franz ;  Meurer, Thomas )
• D01 - Multipolbasiertes Abbildungsverfahren für biomagnetische Felder (Project Head Klinkenbusch, Ludger )
• D02 - Feldlokalisation und Oszillationen in der Tiefe des Gehirns (Project Heads Deuschl, Günther ;  Raethjen, Jan )
• D03 - Zeitreihenanalysen zur Verbesserung lokalisatorischer Algorithmen in der Epileptoplogie (Project Heads Siniatchkin, Michael ;  Stephani, Ulrich )
• D04 - Modellierung und Lokalisation magnetokardiographischer Quellen (Project Heads Frey, Norbert ;  Klinkenbusch, Ludger ;  Wieckhorst, Arne )
• MGK - Integriertes Graduiertenkolleg (Project Heads Adelung, Rainer ;  Klinkenbusch, Ludger ;  Stephani, Ulrich )
• Z01 - Hochauflösende Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie und magnetoelektrische Materialcharakterisierung (Project Heads Kienle, Lorenz ;  Meyners, Dirk )
• Z02 - Magnetoelectric Characterization and Applications of Magnetic Field Sensors (Project Heads Knöchel, Reinhard ;  Quandt, Eckhard )
• Z03 - Zentrale Aufgaben des Sonderforschungsbereichs (Project Head Quandt, Eckhard )

• Applicant Institution: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
• Participating Institution: Fraunhofer-Institut für Siliziumtechnologie (ISIT)
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Quandt