Division of systems engineering

The Iseult project has unveiled the first human brain images obtained using a 11.7 teslas MRI, after almost 25 years of work. This world first was made possible thanks to the commitment of over 200 CEA employees, who believed in this extremely ambitious project from the very beginning

In the early 2000s, a Franco-German project was launched to develop ultra-high resolution imaging. One of the objectives was to build an imager whose key component was a superconducting magnet reaching 11.7 Tesla with a 900 mm aperture, but there was at this time no MRI manufacturer ready to embark on this crazy adventure alone. Based on its strong expertise in superconducting magnets acquired over the past 40 years, in particular for high energy physics and particle physics (Cern) as well as for fusion (Tore Supra, ITER), CEA decided to take up the challenge. After only a few years of design work, CEA proposed in 2006 an initial design using several innovative technological solutions. After exhaustive tests to validate all of them with several prototypes, the final fabrication started in in 2010. It took 7 years for the CEA and Alstom (now General Electric) teams to finalize the construction of this outstanding magnet, a colossus weighing 132 tons, 5 me in length and 5 meters in diameter. The magnet winding is made of 182 km of superconducting wires cooled to -271.35°C by 7,500 liters of superfluid helium.

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METIS is a first-generation instrument for the ELT, the Extremely Large Telescope currently under construction in the Atacama Desert in Chile, which will see its first light in 2028. Irfu has been involved in this instrument since 2018. In 2021, 14 cryomechanisms that will drive a dozen optical systems on the METIS instrument were delivered. METIS comprises two separate units: one for spectroscopy, the other for imaging. The latter contains coronagraphs, based on phase masks. The performance of the masks designed by the University of Liège has been optimised by measurements carried out on the astrophysics department's optical bench dedicated to infrared imaging. In April 2024, after 6 months of testing and performance optimisation, the three masks for N-band coronagraphy (7.5-13.5µm) were delivered to the METIS consortium. They will shortly be integrated into the instrument, which will enter the manufacturing phase in 2024.

The Iseult project has unveiled the first human brain images obtained using a 11.7 teslas MRI, after almost 25 years of work. This world first was made possible thanks to the commitment of over 200 CEA employees, who believed in this extremely ambitious project from the very beginning

In the early 2000s, a Franco-German project was launched to develop ultra-high resolution imaging. One of the objectives was to build an imager whose key component was a superconducting magnet reaching 11.7 Tesla with a 900 mm aperture, but there was at this time no MRI manufacturer ready to embark on this crazy adventure alone. Based on its strong expertise in superconducting magnets acquired over the past 40 years, in particular for high energy physics and particle physics (Cern) as well as for fusion (Tore Supra, ITER), CEA decided to take up the challenge. After only a few years of design work, CEA proposed in 2006 an initial design using several innovative technological solutions. After exhaustive tests to validate all of them with several prototypes, the final fabrication started in in 2010. It took 7 years for the CEA and Alstom (now General Electric) teams to finalize the construction of this outstanding magnet, a colossus weighing 132 tons, 5 me in length and 5 meters in diameter. The magnet winding is made of 182 km of superconducting wires cooled to -271.35°C by 7,500 liters of superfluid helium.

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