Head Coil for 10.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging Human Body Scanner

Abstract

The use of ultra-high magnetic fields (more than 7 Tesla) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide a much higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to commonly used 3T clinical MRI scanners. It will enable the in-vivo imaging of human anatomical details that have never been seen before with other imaging techniques. However, conventional radiofrequency (RF) coils are no longer suitable for providing homogeneous magnetic field (H) distributions. Homogeneity of the magnetic field distribution is an essential property of MRI coils. The uniform H-field distribution of the coils is important for accurate description of the interaction of the electromagnetic waves with the human body. Therefore, with the increase of the main magnetic field, novel RF technology and coil designs are needed. In this paper, we present a new human head coil design for 10.5 Tesla MRI scanner. This novel design provides homogeneous coil sensitivities in the area of interest according to the simulation results. First measurements of the fabricated prototype demonstrated strong resonance at the desired frequency.