Abstract #0329

A 16-Channel Conformal Transceive Coil for 7-T Neuroimaging

Kyle Michael Gilbert¹, Andrew T. Curtis¹, Joseph S. Gati¹, L Martyn Klassen¹, Ravi S. Menon¹

¹Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

A 16-channel transmit/receive array was developed that conforms to the human head. Elements of the array were decoupled using circumferential shields that extended orthogonally from the coil former. The conformal geometry increased transmit efficiency and receive sensitivity. The decoupling scheme permitted high isolation between coil elements, which improved RF shimming and parallel imaging performance. High cortical SNR and low geometry factors make this coil well suited to functional MRI.