ARRAY COIL AND MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING APPARATUS

• US 20190310331A1
• Filed: 04/03/2019
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2018
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: OTAKE, Yosuke, SOTOME, Yoshihisa, OCHI, Hisaaki
• Application Number:
  US16/374,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20190310331A1
• 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 33/34046 Volume type coils, e.g. bird-cage coils; Quadrature bird-cage coils; Circularly polarised coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/34076 Birdcage coils
• 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 33/3607 RF waveform generators, e.g. frequency generators, amplitude-, frequency- or phase modulators or shifters, pulse programmers, digital to analog converters for the RF signal, means for filtering or attenuating of the RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3628 Tuning/matching of the transmit/receive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3657 Decoupling of multiple RF coils wherein the multiple RF coils do not have the same function in MR, e.g. decoupling of a transmission coil from a receive coil

Abstract

The array-coil includes a plurality of coil units that are each adjusted to receive a magnetic resonance signal from an examinee. Each coil unit includes: a first-coil-element and a second-coil-element of which each is formed of a linear conductor having flexibility with a predetermined length; and a signal detecting unit that is inserted in series between the first-coil-element and the second-coil-element and detects the magnetic resonance signal. One end of each of the first-coil-element and the second-coil-element is connected to the signal detecting unit and the other end thereof is an open end. Adjacent areas are electromagnetically coupled to each other to function by curving and arranging the first-coil-element and the second-coil-element such that at least partial areas on the open end side of the first-coil-element and the open end side of the second-coil-element are adjacent to each other with a predetermined gap therebetween.

Claims

1. An array coil comprising a plurality of coil units that are each adjusted to receive a magnetic resonance signal from an examinee,

wherein each coil unit includes:

a first coil element and a second coil element of which each is formed of a linear conductor having flexibility with a predetermined length; and

a signal detecting unit that is inserted in series between the first coil element and the second coil element and detects the magnetic resonance signal,

wherein one end of each of the first coil element and the second coil element is connected to the signal detecting unit and the other end thereof is an open end, and

wherein adjacent areas are electromagnetically coupled to each other to function by curving and arranging the first coil element and the second coil element such that at least partial areas on the open end side of the first coil element and the open end side of the second coil element are adjacent to each other with a predetermined gap there between.

2. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil element and the second coil element have the same length and the open end sides of the first coil element and the second coil element are curved such that the open end sides are arranged to be adjacent to each other in an area other than the signal detecting unit.

3. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil element and the second coil element have different lengths and the open end sides of the first coil element and the second coil element are curved such that at least one of the first coil element and the second coil element is arranged to be adjacent to the signal detecting unit.

4. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil element and the second coil element are curved in a ring shape.

5. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil element and the second coil element are curved in an 8-like shape.

6. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil element and the second coil element are curved in a rectangular shape.

7. The array coil according to claim 1, further comprising a frequency-adjustment conductor that is provided to be movable on the first coil element and the second coil element,

wherein the frequency-adjustment conductor is a conductor sheet that covers a part of the first coil element and the second coil element.

8. The array coil according to claim 1, wherein the first coil elements and the second coil elements of neighboring coil units of the plurality of coil units are arranged to partially overlap each other in the same plane.

9. A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus comprising:

a static magnetic field forming unit that forms a static magnetic field;

a gradient magnetic field forming unit that forms a gradient magnetic field;

a transmitting RF coil that irradiates an examination object placed in the static magnetic field with an RF magnetic field;

a receiving RF coil that detects a nuclear magnetic resonance signal from the examination object; and

a signal processing unit that processes the nuclear magnetic resonance signal detected by the receiving RF coil,

wherein the receiving RF coil is the array coil according to any one of claim 1.