Design and Construction of Integrated MC/RF Hardware for MRI of the Human Brain

Motivation: Multi-coil (MC) B0 shimming provides unrivaled brain shimming, yet early proof-of-concept implementations with preexisting RF hardware suffered from coupling and reduced sensitivity. Goal(s): The design and realization of integrated MC/RF hardware for dynamic MC technique (DYNAMITE) B0 shimming of the human brain at 3T at full RF sensitivity. Approach: We experimentally validate previously derived theoretical strategies for the minimization of MC-to-RF coupling and design integrated MC/RF hardware for MRI of the human brain. Results: Great agreement was found between direct coupling measurements and simulated magnetic field flux, which was used in our previous work as a proxy of coupling due to mutual inductance. Impact: Once the hardware construction and implementation with clinical MRI protocols is complete, the novel MC/RF setup is expected to improve diagnostic imaging in brain areas suffering from inhomogeneous B0 conditions.