Magnetic resonance receiver coil array with sensor node

A magnetic resonance (MR) receiver coil array for an MR imaging system, the MR receiver coil array comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) receiver antenna,
• a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit, comprising a digital amplifier, wherein the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit is configured to receive an MR signal from the RF receiver antenna and output a digital amplified MR signal, and
• a sensor node comprising a sensor configured to gather measurement data other than MR signal acquisition, the sensor node further comprising a sensor signal acquisition circuit, wherein the sensor signal acquisition circuit is configured to digitize the gathered measurement data, wherein the sensor signal acquisition circuit is connected to the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit via a first digital interface, wherein the sensor signal acquisition circuit is configured to link the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit to the digital amplifier via the first digital interface, wherein the digital amplifier is configured to combine the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit and the digital amplified MR signal, wherein
• the MR receiver coil array comprises a merger circuit, wherein the merger circuit is configured to receive the combined digital amplified MR signal and the digitized measurement data from the digital amplifier by a second digital interface and to output the combined data to a back-end of the MR imaging system or a digital data processor.