Peter Thomas While1, Larry K. Forbes1, Stuart Crozier2
1School of Maths and Physics, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; 2School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
An analytic inverse method is presented for the theoretical design of 3D transverse gradient coils. This method solves for the precise geometry of the coil windings as part of the optimisation, rather than restricting the solution to some predetermined coil surface. An ill-conditioned integral equation is solved for a 3D current density using regularisation and a minimum power constraint. Coil windings are obtained using a priority streamline seeding technique followed by a secondary optimisation of the coil currents. Results are found to display an interesting general geometric form involving sets of closed loops plus spiral-type coils with excellent gradient homogeneity.