MRI RF coil assemblies with RF coil elements that allow wireless communication data transmission and related methods and systems

A method of operating an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, comprising:

• providing a Radio Frequency (RF) coil array assembly with a plurality of coil elements and at least one wireless module with a wireless transceiver with general purpose input and output (GPIO) connections, the at least one wireless module connected to at least some of the coil elements;
• concurrently flowing RF currents at Larmor and wireless communication data transmission frequencies on at least some of the coil elements;
• and
• directly wirelessly transmitting MRI RF signal and wireless communication data from the wireless module to at least one dipole antenna that is outside a bore of a magnet in a scanner room of an MRI scanner suite.

A battery module for an RF coil assembly of an MRI system, comprising:

• a substrate;
• at least one rechargeable, non-ferromagnetic battery held on the substrate;
• and
• a wireless module comprising a transceiver held on the substrate electrically coupled to the at least one rechargeable battery,
• wherein the battery module is configured to couple to the RF coil assembly of the MRI system, and wherein the substrate comprises a printed circuit board, and wherein the at least one rechargeable, non-ferromagnetic battery is a plurality of rechargeable non-ferromagnetic batteries all electrically connected to the wireless module.