Revisiting the Impact of Inter-Channel Coupling and Thermal Noise Correlation on MRI Receive-Array Performance: A Simulation Study

In modern magnetic resonance imaging scanners, the signal reception is carried out by a phased array of 32 resonators or more. The electromagnetic coupling between channels becomes stronger as the density of resonators, or RF coils, increases. The inter-channel coupling has generally been considered an adverse effect that should be mitigated to provide the highest signal-to-noise ratio and the lowest g-factor. Both are related to the resolution or quality of the images. The numerical simulations of this study show that this mitigation is unnecessary as long as only the contribution of thermal noise is considered.