Benoit Schaller1, Arthur W. Magill1,2,
Rolf Gruetter1,3
1Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic
Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Department
of Radiology, University of Lausanne; 3Department of Radiology,
Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland
We
present a new 8-channel microstrip array desiged for RF shimming and parallel
transmission. Strips, mechanically tuned by adjusting the height over the
ground plane, are symmetrically fed via a lattice balun, making the probe
tune and match invariant under different loading conditions (different
subject). Tuning and matching capacitors are fixed, the array gives a match of
better than -23dB with Q=37 (loaded). Coupling between nearest neighbors was
-22dB (loaded), and -17dB for the next neighbors, obtained without decoupling
capacitors between elements. MR scans showed a penetration of 65mm inside a
cylindrical saline phantom (160mm, L=360mm).