Ultra-Fast Selective RF Pulse Design for Parallel Transmission Using Pre-Calculated Base Pulses

Ingmar Graesslin¹, Annighoefer Bjoern¹, Ulrich Katscher¹, Peter Brnert²

Parallel transmission in high-field MRI can improve the B1 homogeneity, as well as speed up multidimensional RF pulses (Transmit SENSE). However, the calculation of such pulses often takes too long for the use in a clinical setting, in particular if RF safety constraints are considered. This work presents a novel simple and efficient approach to calculate selective RF pulses for arbitrary target patterns based on pre-calculated base pulses. The base pulses can be precalculated by using arbitrary RF pulse design algorithms. They can be optimized for SAR or power and are valid for certain k-space trajectories and transmit coil arrangements.