Quadrature Slotted Surface Coil Pair for Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 4 Tesla: Phantom Study

Resumen

A coil array was composed of two slotted surface coils forming a structure with two plates at 90⁰, each one having 6 circular slots and is introduced in this paper. Numerical simulations of the magnetic field of this coil array were performed at 170 MHz using the finite element method to study its behaviour. This coil array was developed for brain magnetic resonance imaging to be operated at the resonant frequency of 170 MHz in the transceiver mode and quadrature driven. Numerical simulations demonstrated that electromagnetic interaction between the coil elements is negligible, and that the magnetic field showed a good uniformity. Phantom images were acquired with our coil array and standard pulse sequences on a research-dedicated 4 Tesla scanner. In vitro images showed the feasibility of this coil array for standard pulses and high field magnetic resonance imaging.