Evgeniya Kirilina1, Andr Kuehne1, Tomasz Lindel1, Werner Hoffmann1, Thomas Riemer2, Frank Seifert1
1Medical Metrology, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany; 2IZKF, Leipzig, Germany
Parallel excitation (PEX) techniques are cutting edge MRI applications complementing Parallel Imaging (PI) in its use of RF coil arrays. In conventional, power driven transmit arrays, electromagnetic coupling between the coil elements poses a major challenge since it distorts the excitation profiles of the individual elements and aggravates SAR control during parallel transmission. In this work we demonstrate that coupling issues may be circumvented by applying simple MOSFET based current sources to drive the transmit/receive array. The feasibility of combining PEX and PI for in-vivo experiments is demonstrated using a current controlled transmit and receive (2CONTAR) array is demonstrated.