The Texas A&M University System

General Electric Company

Steven M Wright

Mary Preston McDougall

Eddy Benjamin Boskamp

Krishna Nagaraj Kurpad

David Gerald Brown

Each of the coils in a transmit coil array of a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus is electrically connected to a common voltage point by a transmission line. By controlling the electrical length of the transmission line connecting each of the coils to the common voltage point to an odd integer multiple of one quarter wavelength, the current delivered to each coil is independent of coil impedance. This principle of forced current excitation enables equal currents to be delivered to each coil of a magnetic resonance imaging transmit coil array regardless of the unique loading of the individual coils and mutual impedance between the coils.

Volume array coil with enforced uniform element currents for improved excitation homogeneity

An MRI system includes an array of series resonant transmit elementsandincluding individual control of RF current in all elementsThe arrayandadjusts scan homogeneity during a scan or prescan phase by adjusting amplitude and phase. The arrayandalso selectively excites areas of interest, thus avoiding major power dissipation and avoiding heating in the patient.

System and method for operating transmit or transmit/receive elements in an MR system

According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging is provided. The apparatus includes a detection surface defined by a plurality of sensors. Each of the sensors is operable to receive image information concerning a particular portion of a target surface by substantially confining to the each of the sensors magnetic flux associated with the particular portion of the target surface. The detection surface is operable to acquire all image information for generating a magnetic resonance image resembling the target surface by receiving, at the each of the sensors, a single echo signal from the particular portion of the target surface that correspondingly underlies the each of the sensors. The magnetic resonance image has a resolution of at least sixty-four pixels by a number of pixels equal to M. M is an integer.

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College Station, TX, United States of America

Steven M Wright