MULTI-TURN MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI) ARRAY COIL OPERABLE AT LOW MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTH

• US 20190310330A1
• Filed: 04/08/2019
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2018
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Quality Electrodynamics (QED), LLC
• Original Assignee: Quality Electrodynamics (QED), LLC
• Inventors: Yang, Xiaoyu, Zhu, Haoqin, Wu, Yong, Zheng, Tsinghua
• Application Number:
  US16/377,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20190310330A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/34007 Manufacture of RF coils, e.g. using printed circuit board technology; additional hardware for providing mechanical support to the RF coil assembly or to part thereof, e.g. a support for moving the coil assembly relative to the remainder of the MR system
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/34084 implantable coils or coils being geometrically adaptable to the sample, e.g. flexible coils or coils comprising mutually movable parts
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3415 comprising arrays of sub-coils , i.e. phased-array coils with flexible receiver channels
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/36 Electrical details, e.g. matching or coupling of the coil to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/445 MR involving a non-standard magnetic field B0, e.g. of low magnitude as in the earth's magnetic field or in nanoTesla spectroscopy, comprising a polarizing magnetic field for pre-polarisation, B0 with a temporal variation of its magnitude or direction such as field cycling of B0 or rotation of the direction of B0, or spatially inhomogeneous B0 like in fringe-field MR or in stray-field imaging

Abstract

Embodiments relate to multi-turn coil elements and arrays of multi-turn coil elements that can be employed at low B₀ field strength (e.g., 1.5 T or less). One example embodiment comprises a coil array configured to operate in at least one of a transmit (Tx) mode or a receive (Rx) mode, the coil array comprising: a plurality of multi-turn coil elements, each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements comprising: an associated LC coil of that multi-turn coil element, comprising at least one associated coil inductor, at least one associated coil capacitor, and an associated loop comprising at least two turns; wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more rows, wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more columns, and wherein the MRI RF coil array is configured to operate at a B₀ field of 1.5 T or less.

Claims

1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radio frequency (RF) coil array configured to operate in at least one of a transmit (Tx) mode or a receive (Rx) mode, the MRI RF coil array comprising:

a plurality of multi-turn coil elements, each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements comprising;

an associated LC coil of that multi-turn coil element, comprising at least one associated coil inductor, at least one associated coil capacitor, and an associated loop comprising at least two turns;

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more rows,

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more columns, and

wherein the MRI RF coil array is configured to operate at a B₀ field of 1.5 T or less.

2. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, that multi-turn coil element is a flexible coil element.

3. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, an associated conductor of that multi-turn coil element is a flexible coaxial cable of that multi-turn coil element.

4. The MRI RF coil array of claim 3, wherein the flexible coaxial cable has a diameter of 3 mm or less.

5. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, an associated conductor of that multi-turn coil element is a flexible multi-stranded wire of that multi-turn coil element.

6. The MRI RF coil array of claim 5, wherein the flexible multi-stranded wire has a diameter of 3 mm or less.

7. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, the at least one associated coil capacitor of that multi-turn coil element is a distributed capacitor of that multi-turn coil element comprising an associated dielectric material of that multi-turn coil element and an associated conductive material of that multi-turn coil element.

8. The MRI RF coil array of claim 7, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, the associated dielectric material of that multi-turn coil element is flexible and the associated conductive material of that multi-turn coil element is flexible.

9. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein the associated loop of each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements comprises N turns, wherein N is an integer greater than one.

10. The MRI RF coil array of claim 1, wherein each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements is associated with a different channel of the MRI RF coil array.

11. An apparatus configured to be employed in connection with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:

a first layer of a flexible material;

a second layer of the flexible material; and

a MRI radio frequency (RF) coil array configured to operate in at least one of a transmit (Tx) mode or a receive (Rx) mode, the MRI RF coil array comprising;

a plurality of multi-turn coil elements, each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements comprising;

an associated LC coil of that multi-turn coil element, comprising at least one associated coil inductor, at least one associated coil capacitor, and an associated loop comprising at least two turns;

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more rows,

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more columns, and

wherein the MRI RF coil array is configured to operate at a B₀ field of 1.5 T or less,

wherein the MRI RF coil array is arranged between the first layer and the second layer.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, that multi-turn coil element is a flexible coil element.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, an associated conductor of that multi-turn coil element is a flexible coaxial cable of that multi-turn coil element.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the flexible coaxial cable has a diameter of 3 mm or less.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, an associated conductor of that multi-turn coil element is a flexible multi-stranded wire of that multi-turn coil element.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the flexible multi-stranded wire has a diameter of 3 mm or less.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, the at least one associated coil capacitor of that multi-turn coil element is a distributed capacitor of that multi-turn coil element comprising an associated dielectric material of that multi-turn coil element and an associated conductive material of that multi-turn coil element.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, the associated dielectric material of that multi-turn coil element is flexible and the associated conductive material of that multi-turn coil element is flexible.

19. A single-layer magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radio frequency (RF) coil array configured to alternately operate in a transmit (Tx) mode and in a receive (Rx) mode, the MRI RF coil array comprising:

a plurality of multi-turn coil elements, each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements comprising;

an associated LC coil of that multi-turn coil element, comprising at least one associated coil inductor, at least one associated coil capacitor, and an associated loop comprising at least two turns;

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more rows,

wherein the plurality of multi-turn coil elements are arranged into one or more columns,

wherein the MRI RF coil array is configured to operate at a B₀ field of 1.5 T or less, and

wherein, in the Tx mode, the coil array is configured to generate RF signals based on one of inductive coupling to a primary coil or at least one direct connection between a power supply and at least one multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements.

20. The MRI RF coil array of claim 19, wherein, for each multi-turn coil element of the plurality of multi-turn coil elements, that multi-turn coil element is a flexible coil element.