Jarek Wosik1, 2, Kurt H. Bockhorst3, Tan I-Chih4, Ponnada A. Narayana3
1Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States; 2Texas Center for Superconductivity; 3Department of Radiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, United States; 4The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
We report on the recent development and improvements of a 300-MHz cryogenic (both copper and superconducting) coil for high resolution MRI. The coil comprises of two split rings rotated 180 deg. versus each other and has built-in gold contacts for attaching coupling/matching and detuning circuitry. The coil was fabricated by patterning double-sided thin film on 0.33 mm sapphire substrate (ε=10.4). SNR gains of 77K copper and YBCO coils were measured and compared with theoretical predictions and calculations. SNR/resolution limits of the HTS coil are currently tested for DTI of rat brain and also for 3 D imaging of sciatic mouse nerve.
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