RF coil for imaging system
AssigneeThe General Hospital Corporation
InventorJ. Thomas Vaughan JR.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An RF coil suitable for use in imaging systems is provided which coil has a dielectric filled cavity formed by a surrounding conducting enclosure, the conducting enclosure preferably being patterned to form continuous electrical paths around the cavity, each of which paths may be tuned to a selected resonant frequency. The patterning breaks up any currents induced in the coil and shortens path lengths to permit higher frequency, and thus higher field strength operation. The invention also includes improved mechanisms for tuning the resonant frequency of the paths, for selectively detuning the paths, for applying signal to the coil, for shortening the length of the coil and for controlling the field profile of the coil and the delivery of field to the object to the image.
Claims31
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a cavity formed as a conductive enclosure in which resonant fields can be excited;
- a dielectric material filling said cavity;
- and
- at least one sample space formed in said dielectric material.
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a cavity formed as a conductive enclosure defined by an outer wall, an inner wall, a first end wall and a second end wall, said inner wall defining a sample-receiving chamber, said first end wall being open adjacent said chamber to provide access thereto, and said second end wall being closed to seal the chamber at its second end, the closed second end wall functioning as an RF signal mirror;
- at least one electrical conductor for each of said walls, electrical conductors on adjacent walls being electrically coupled to form at least one continuous electrical path around the cavity;
- and
- a port through which RF signal is applied to at least one said electrical paths.
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a dielectric filled cavity formed as wall surrounding the dielectric, which wall is formed at least in part of an electrical conductor, said electrical conductor forming at least one continuous electrically conducting path around said cavity, field applied to said at least one electrically conducting path causing a selected alternating magnetic field in said cavity, and at least one aperture formed in at least said electrical conductor through which said magnetic field may be applied to an adjacent body.
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a cavity formed as a conductive enclosure defined by a surrounding conductive wall, said conductive wall being patterned to form at least one continuous electrical path around said cavity;
- and
- a dielectric material filling said cavity, said dielectric material having a dielectric constant which provides a selected capacitance and wavelength, and thus a selected resonant frequency, for said at least one path.
An imaging system including:
- an RF coil having at least one continuous electrical path;
- a mechanism which determines a resonant frequency for said coil;
- and
- dielectric material selectively positioned between said coil and a body to be imaged and shaped to at least one of control and shape the field applied to the body from the coil.
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a resonant cavity of a selected size and shape which is formed by a surrounding conductive enclosure, the conductive enclosure being patterned to suppress low frequency eddy currents and EMI noise.
An RF coil for use in an imaging system including:
- a cavity formed by at least an inner and an outer conductor;
- a dielectric material filling said cavity;
- and
- at least one sample space formed in at least one of said dielectric material and said inner conductor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.