A Combined Magnetoelectric Sensor Array and MRI-Based Human Head Model for Biomagnetic FEM Simulation and Sensor Crosstalk Analysis

Magnetoelectric (ME) magnetic field sensors are novel sensing devices of great interest in the field of biomagnetic measurements. We investigate the influence of magnetic crosstalk and the linearity of the response of ME sensors in different array and excitation configurations. To achieve this aim, we introduce a combined multiscale 3D finite-element method (FEM) model consisting of an array of 15 ME sensors and an MRI-based human head model with three approximated compartments of biological tissues for skin, skull, and white matter. A linearized material model at the small-signal working point is assumed. We apply homogeneous magnetic fields and perform inhomogeneous magnetic field excitation for the ME sensors by placing an electric point dipole source inside the head. Our findings indicate significant magnetic crosstalk between adjacent sensors leading down to a 15.6% lower magnetic response at a close distance of 5 mm and an increasing sensor response with diminishing crosstalk effects at increasing distances up to 5 cm. The outermost sensors in the array exhibit significantly less crosstalk than the sensors located in the center of the array, and the vertically adjacent sensors exhibit a stronger crosstalk effect than the horizontally adjacent ones. Furthermore, we calculate the ratio between the electric and magnetic sensor responses as the sensitivity value and find near-constant sensitivities for each sensor, confirming a linear relationship despite magnetic crosstalk and the potential to simulate excitation sources and sensor responses independently.