Accelerated Electromagnetic Simulation of MRI RF Interactions with Graphene Microtransistor-Based Neural Probes for Electrophysiology-fMRI Integration

Suchit Kumar; Alejandro Labastida Ramirez; Samuel M Flaherty; Anton Guimera Brunet; Nerea Alvarez de Eulate; Kostas Kostarelos; Ben Dickie; Rob C Wykes; Louis Lemieux

arXiv · 2602.03437

Accelerated Electromagnetic Simulation of MRI RF Interactions with Graphene Microtransistor-Based Neural Probes for Electrophysiology-fMRI Integration

Suchit Kumar·Alejandro Labastida Ramirez·Samuel M Flaherty·Anton Guimera Brunet·Nerea Alvarez de Eulate·Kostas Kostarelos·Ben Dickie·Rob C Wykes·Louis Lemieux

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Abstract

Implementing electrophysiological recordings within an MRI environment is challenging due to complex interactions between recording probes and MRI-generated fields, which can affect both safety and data quality. This study aims to develop and evaluate a hybrid electromagnetic (EM) simulation framework for efficient and accurate assessment of such interactions. Methods: A hybrid EM strategy integrating the Huygens' Box (HB) method with sub-gridding was implemented in an FDTD solver (Sim4Life). RF coil models for mouse and rat head were simulated with and without intracortical (IC) and epicortical (EC) graphene-based micro-transistor arrays. Three-dimensional multi-layered probe models were reconstructed from two-dimensional layouts, and transmit field ($B_{1}^{+}$), electric field ($E$), and specific absorption rate (SAR) distributions were evaluated. Performance was benchmarked against conventional full-wave multi-port (MP) simulations using Bland-Altman analysis and voxel-wise percentage differences. Results: HB simulations reduced computational time by approximately 70-80%, while preserving spatial patterns of $|B_{1}^{+}|$, $|E|$, and SAR, including transmit-field symmetry and localized high-field regions. Deviations from MP were minimal for $|B_{1}^{+}|$ (median $Δ$% 0.02-0.07% in mice, -3.7% to -1.7% in rats) and modest for $|E|$ and SAR, with absolute SAR values remaining well below human safety limits. Graphene-based arrays produced negligible effects on RF transmission and SAR deposition. Conclusion: The HB approach enables computationally efficient, high-resolution evaluation of EM interactions involving microscopic probes in MRI environments, supporting simulations that are otherwise impractical with full-wave MP modeling.

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Suchit Kumar, Alejandro Labastida Ramirez, Samuel M Flaherty, Anton Guimera Brunet, Nerea Alvarez de Eulate, Kostas Kostarelos, Ben Dickie, Rob C Wykes, Louis Lemieux. 2026-02-03. Accelerated Electromagnetic Simulation of MRI RF Interactions with Graphene Microtransistor-Based Neural Probes for Electrophysiology-fMRI Integration. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03437

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