Ozlem Ipek1, Bob van den Bergen1, J. J. W. Lagendijk1, Cornelis A T van den Berg1
1Department of Radiotherapy & Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
The concept of a body coil is not eligible for high field MRI (> 7T) due to waveguide action. We inserted a tubular dielectric inset into the RF cavity which will tune part of the cavity above the cut-off frequency creating an open cavity resonator. FDTD simulations were performed with a dielectric patient model to compare this new coil design to a traditional 7T body coil concept. Our study demonstrates that the RF shield with a dielectric inset excited by four dipole antennas can achieve comparable excitation efficiency and homogeneity with a simpler coil design as a 7T body coil.