ADVANCED NEXT GEENRATION RADIO FREQUENCY COILS FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

磁共振成像(MRI)是一种安全、非电离的诊断工具。这个项目的总体目标是 项目是非常接近给定MRI的最终固有信噪比(UISNR 通过结合非常先进的收发技术的创新来增强磁场强度。在第一阶段， 高性能磁头射频线圈接收器阵列将成为原型，信噪比性能与 现有的商业产品。第二阶段的重点将是第一阶段线圈的优化，机械 住宅设计之后进行系统的体模验证。 MRI是检查软组织结构的首选方法。然而，由于MRI信号较弱 由于平行和反平行自旋能级布居的微小差异(1.5T时约6ppm)， 为这一信号作出贡献。临床MRI检查需要高分辨率和/或快速扫描。由于SNR是 满足这些要求的主要限制，是磁共振成像系统最重要的参数。 MRI信噪比可以通过信号平均来提高，但需要较长的扫描时间。追求 一方面，更高的信噪比导致了转向使用更高的静态磁场，这是 价格昂贵，而且存在选址和安全问题。另一方面，我们正在迅速接近以下方面的限制 具有更多接收器通道的MRI系统。 我们提出了新的创新来优化给定磁场强度下的磁共振信噪比。大体信噪比 可以通过增加信号强度或降低噪声来增加。我们提出了新的组合 通过有效地实现两者，以获得最大的、接近极限的内在MRI信噪比。技术 所提出的方法在核磁共振成像领域内外有着广泛的应用。一个成功的项目将提高MR 在更短的扫描时间内获得图像质量，从而减轻了高成本、高磁场MRI的负担 系统。建议的工作是原创的。

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe, non-ionizing diagnostic tool. The overall goal of this project is to arrive very close to the ultimate intrinsic signal to noise ratio (UISNR) for a given MRI magnet field strength by combining innovations in very advanced transceiver technology. In Phase I, a high performance head RF coil receiver array will be prototyped and SNR performance compared to an existing commercial product. Emphasis in Phase II will be towards Phase I coil optimization, mechanical housing design followed by systematic phantom validation. MRI is the preferred method for examining soft tissue structures. However MRI signals are weak due to the small difference in energy levels population of parallel and anti-parallel spins (~6ppm at 1.5T) that contribute to the signal. Clinical MRI exams demand high resolution and/or fast scanning. Since SNR is the main limitation on fulfilling these requirements, it is the most important parameter of MRI systems. MRI SNR can be increased by signal averaging at the expense of lengthy scan times. Pursuit of higher SNR on one hand has resulted in a shift toward the use of higher static magnetic fields which is expensive and has siting and safety issues. On the other hand, we are rapidly approaching limitations in MRI systems with greater number of receiver channels. We propose novel innovations to optimize MRI SNR for a given magnet field strength. Generally SNR can be increased by increasing the signal strength or by reducing noise. We propose novel combinations to achieve maximum, near ultimate intrinsic MRI SNR by efficiently accomplishing both. The technology proposed has broad applications within and outside of MRI. A successful project will improve the MR image quality in shorter scan times thereby alleviating burden on high cost, high magnet field based MRI systems. The work proposed is original.