Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

General Electric Company

Daniel Joseph Weyers

David E Dean

Ed Benjamin Boskamp

Graeme Colin McKinnon

Daniel Joseph Schaefer

Dewain Anthony Purgill

Steven Christopher Davis

Roman I Dachniwskyj

Kevin Kinsey

Timothy William Skloss

Qin Liu

Ken Hsieh

Shizhe Li

David Keren

Ed B Boskamp

An imaging coil () includes multiple end rings (). A center ring () extends parallel to and is coupled between the end rings (). Multiple legs () are coupled between the end rings () and the center ring (). The end rings () may have a first radius (R) that is greater than a second radius (R) of the center ring (). The imaging coil () may include more than 16 legs. The imaging coil () may include multiple capacitor groupings () coupled along the end rings (), each capacitor grouping () has multiple capacitors () with a coverage area width (W) greater than 5.0 cm. The center ring () may be coupled to a ground reference () and has low impedance such that the center ring () is effectively shorted to the ground reference ().

Elevated endring birdcage antenna for MRI applications

An RF coil apparatus for generating an elliptical polarization field includes an RF coil assembly having a pair of independent drive channels connected thereto. The drive channels are driven such that an elliptical polarization field is generated in a volume-of-interest within the RF coil assembly. The elliptical polarization field is generated about a subject having a generally elliptical cross-section disposed within the volume-of-interest.

System and method of elliptically driving an MRI Coil

An apparatus for MRI having an RF birdcage coil and an RF shield is disclosed. The RF birdcage coil includes a coil axis, an end ring portion disposed about the axis, and a plurality of legs disposed parallel to the axis and in signal communication with the end ring portion. The RF shield is disposed about the coil and is in signal communication therewith. The shield includes a cylindrical conductive sheet having first and second ends, and a plurality of sets of discontinuous slots disposed about the cylindrical sheet and running between the first and second ends, wherein a region of discontinuity within a set of the slots is aligned with the end ring portion.

Shielding apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging

A system and method including an apparatus for use in electrically loading RF coils of an MRI system is disclosed. The apparatus includes a polymer interdispersed with an electrically conductive additive such that the apparatus provides the necessary electrical loading of the RF coils for testing and calibration of the MRI system but is free of liquid. Furthermore, the apparatus is capable of providing the requisite electrical load in high magnet magnetic fields without introducing image distortion as a result of standing waves within the apparatus.

System and method of electrically loading radio-frequency coils using conductive polymers

An integrated quadrature splitter-combiner and balun comprising: a transmission line balun operably connected to a first port and a second port; a first capacitor operably connected across the transmission line balun; a second capacitor operably connected to the first port and said balun; and a third capacitor operably connected to the second port and the balun. The second capacitor, the third capacitor, and the transmission line balun combine to form an RF splitter-combiner to split a balanced RF signal received at the first port into a first and second unbalanced quadrature RF signal transmitted at the second port and combines the first and second unbalanced quadrature RF signals received at the second port into the balanced RF signal transmitted at the first port.

Integrated quadrature splitter-combiner and balun

An RF birdcage coil for use in MRI systems is disclosed. A number of slotted or nonconductive channels are provided in the conductive material of the RF coil to minimize the size of the conductive paths available for eddy currents. Furthermore, blocking capacitors are applied between the legs and the end segments of the conductive elements to isolate the end segments from the legs at low frequency harmonics, such as those associated with eddy currents, while acting substantially as a short circuit at high operational frequencies. Preferably, the blocking capacitors are constructed by providing the legs of a plurality of I-beams on a first side of a dielectric material, and the end segments on an opposing side. The blocking capacitor results from overlapping the conductive material forming the leg and end segment on opposite sides of the dielectric material.

RF birdcage coil with reduced acoustic noise

The present invention provides for a body coil modeled after a birdcage coil and based on a ladder network design. A fixed number of single loop coils (N) are equally spaced around a cylinder. These coils must be driven 360&deg;/N out of phase with respect to each other azimuthally. Each phase must increase 360&deg;/N as azimuthally in order for single loop coil currents to mimic currents commonly seen in the quadrature birdcage coil. A switching circuit is necessary to change the transmit coil configuration and the N channel for phased array reception. This type of coil eliminates the otherwise necessary need to decouple the transmit coil from the receiver coils, but preserves the SNR benefit of having multiple receiver coils. This type of coil will improve SNR over ordinary volume coils and may be necessary imaging large patients where space around the patient is at a minimum.

RF coil for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive

An MRI apparatus and method for minimizing mutual inductance between a center coil and an end coil configuration that reduces wrap-around artifacts in an MR image is provided. The switchable FOV coil configuration includes first and second RF coils aligned along a first axis. The second RF coil is coupled to the first RF coil to form a pair of end saddle coils. A central RF coil is also included having a length along the first axis and positioned at least partially within the end saddle coils such that activation of the central RF coil alone or in combination with the end saddle coils provides differing FOV's for imaging.

Switchable FOV coil assembly having end saddle coils

A thermal radiation shield and a method for applying the same includes a first coating layer , a second coating layer , and a thermal shield layer . The first coating layer is applied to a first surface. The second coating layer is applied to a second service. The thermal shield layer is positioned between the first coating layer and the second coating layer to form the thermal radiation shield . The thermal radiation shield has non-interfering electrical properties.

Non-conductive long wave thermal radiation shield

An MRI apparatus and method for reducing wrap around artifacts during image reconstruction is provided. An RF coil and control configuration includes a center coil and at least one pair of end RF coils configured to encode and excite spins over an adjustable field-of-view (FOV). The adjustable FOV has at least two size designations in response to an FOV size request input. The control connected to the RF coil assembly is capable of switching between the FOV size designations by switching power to activate a center coil alone or the center coil in conjunction with the end coils in unison.

Growing community of inventors

Wauwatosa, WI, United States of America

Daniel Joseph Weyers