Geometric decoupling using clip-path conductors for whole-brain transceiver array at 7 T

Abstract

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a radiofrequency (RF) coil array with a large number of elements is commonly employed for transmission and reception to improve the uniformity of the RF transmitting magnetic field and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, multi-element RF arrays can reduce the acquisition time using the parallel imaging technique. However, mutual inductance coupling is unavoidable in multi-element RF coil arrays. Therefore, many researchers have studied geometric and artificial decoupling techniques to minimize mutual inductance coupling. This study proposes a decoupling method using clip-path conductors (CPCs). The CPC geometry locates the top-right and bottom-left positions in the loop coil to reduce the mutual inductance coupling between adjacent elements. The decoupling performance of the CPC coil was verified via electromagnetic simulations and bench measurements. An eight-element transceiver CPC array was manufactured, and phantom and healthy volunteer images were acquired using a 7-T MRI system.