Design of Robust Thin Slice Spectral Spatial RF Pulses

Yuval Zur¹

Spectral spatial (spsp) RF pulses are used for simultaneous fat suppression and slice selective excitation. Reduction of the minimum slice width to less than 2 mm at high field strength (3T) requires very powerful gradients. The purpose of this work is to design spsp RF pulses with lower gradients, such that thin slices 1.5 mm become feasible. The drawback is that spsp pulses are very sensitive to RF gradient delay and eddy currents. We present a calibration method and design a new spsp RF pulse that is less sensitive to system imperfections. The combination of the two results in robust 1.3 mm spsp RF pulse.