Patent ID: 7218111

Claim:
An instrument to measure the polarization of a hyperpolarized substance, using resonant frequency of said hyperpolarized substance comprising: a) an electrical L-C resonant circuit, the inductance of which contains the specimen of said hyperpolarized substance, whose polarization is to be measured, to be situated in an ambient magnetic field; b) a feedback circuit based on a high gain amplifier and a limiter (a Robinson oscillator) in order to maintain said L-C circuit in oscillation at a low amplitude; c) a timer circuit as a frequency counter configured to measure the frequency of oscillation of said L-C circuit by counting the number of oscillations in a fixed time interval; d) a microprocessor configured to control the operation of said instrument, including a selection of values from a plurality of values of said ambient magnetic field, wherein the modes of oscillations in which the frequency of said L-C circuit is measured are determined by reading the frequency from said frequency counter and to perform calculations in order to send signals to a circuit which controls said ambient magnetic field component, transverse to the axis of the inductance of the L-C circuit; e) an electronic circuit to control the current in the coil which produces said ambient magnetic field, under the control command of a voltage sent by said microprocessor; f) a liquid crystal display module to display the results of calculations performed by said microprocessor; g) a local oscillator to beat with the said Robinson oscillator to produce an audible representation of the frequency of said Robinson oscillator; and h) a port to communicate with an external computer.