Abstract #0527
Four-element 300 MHz Superconducting Array for Parallel Imaging
Bockhorst K, Wosik J, Nesteruk K, Kamel M, Xue L, Xie L, Narayana P
The University of Texas, Health Science Center
We report on the recent development of a 300-MHz superconducting array for parallel MRI of small animals. Two four-elements arrays were designed with one made of copper and the other with HTS thin films. Each array comprises of four 18mm-diameter coils with built-in capacitors for capacitive coupling/matching/tuning and decoupling. The closed cycle pulsed tube refrigerator was used to cool the array and the associated electronics to 55 K. Both arrays were fully tested at 7.0T Bruker scanner and the obtained SNR gain of the cooled Cu and HTS arrays over room temperature Cu were 100 % and 160%, respectively.
