The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 10, 1995
Filed:
Jul. 06, 1993
John L Patrick, Chagrin Falls, OH (US);
Xueming Zou, Chesterland, OH (US);
Nicholas J Mastandrea, Bedford Hts., OH (US);
Paul T Orlando, Mentor, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Hts., OH (US);
Abstract
A primary gradient coil assembly (22) is mounted in the inner bore or cylinder (20) of a vacuum dewar (18) that surrounds a superconducting magnet assembly (10). A pair of end ring assemblies, such as electrically conductive lapped segment loops (38) are supported by the gradient coil assembly (22). The end ring segments are capacitively coupled. A plurality of removable radio frequency coil element assemblies (40) are selectively attached to and detached from the gradient coil assembly. Each of the removable RF coil element assembly includes a dielectric housing (50), a longitudinally extending conductor element (52), an electrical connector (44), and circuit components (54) which connects the longitudinal conductor element with the electrical connector. The connector is electrically connected, at radio frequencies, with the ring assembly (38). A mechanical interlock (60) mechanically locks and selectively releases the removable element assemblies (40) to the gradient coil assembly. Sets of different removable element assemblies are provided with different effective radii, i.e. different physical displacements of the electrical conductor elements (52) from the gradient coil assembly, different resonance frequencies, i.e. different reactive elements (58), and the like to adapt the different removable element assemblies for different imaging applications. The removable element assemblies may be completely removed when specialty RF coils, such as a head coil, biplanar gradient coil, or surface coil are used.