Abstract #1493

Design Optimization of a 32-Channel Head Coil at 7T

Boris Keil¹, Christina Triantafyllou^1,2, Michael Hamm³, Lawrence L. Wald^1,4

¹A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, MGH, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States; ²A.A. Martinos Imaging Center, Mc Govern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States; ³Siemens Healthcare, Charlestown, MA, United States; ⁴Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States

The development of high-field coils with an increasing number of elements places increasingly constraints on the arrangement of the components, including preamplifier, cables and cable traps. For maximum spatial efficiency and reduced losses, most of the components needed to be placed adjacent to the corresponding coil loop. Reduced interaction with the transmit coil requires a sparse configuration of conductors, well isolated through cable traps. In this study a new generation of a 32-channel coil at 7T was constructed, tested, and compared to a previous 32-channel design. Substantial changes have been implemented to achieve better SNR, increased stability, lower transmit power.