RF coil for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive

For use in an MR imaging system, a radio frequency (RF) coil for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive which comprises

• a) a cylinder,
• b) a fixed number N of single loop coils, said coils being equally spaced around the cylinder,
• c) means for driving the coils out of phase with respect to each other azimuthally, the phase delay in each loop being equal to 360°/N, and
• d) a switching circuit for changing the transmit coil configuration to phased array reception,
• whereby the need to decouple the transmit coil from the receiver coil is eliminated and the signal to noise ratio benefit is preserved.

An MR imaging system having a radio frequency (RF) coil for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive which comprises

• a) a cylinder,
• b) a fixed number of single loop coils, said number of coils being N and further being equally spaced around the cylinder,
• c) means for driving the coils out of phase with respect to each other azimuthally, the phase delay in each loop being equal to 360°/N, and
• d) a switching circuit for changing the transmit coil configuration to phased array reception,
• whereby the need to decouple the transmit coil from the receiver coil is eliminated and the signal to noise ratio benefit is preserved.

An MR imaging system that includes a radio frequency (RF) coil for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive which comprises

• a) a cylinder,
• b) a fixed number of single loop coils, said number of coils being N and further being equally spaced around the cylinder,
• c) means for driving the coils out of phase with respect to each other azimuthally, the phase delay in each loop being equal to 360°/N, and
• d) a switching circuit for changing the transmit coil configuration to phased array reception, said switching circuit including a transmit/receive switch to achieve multichannel reception by independent coil elements,
• whereby the need to decouple the transmit coil from the receiver coil is eliminated and the signal to noise ratio benefit is preserved.

A radio frequency (RF) coil for use with an MR imaging system for homogeneous quadrature transmit and multiple channel receive by the RF coil which comprises

• a) a cylindrical, conical or dome shaped hollow element,
• b) eight single loop coils equally spaced around the hollow element,
• c) means for driving the coils out of phase with respect to each other azimuthally wherein the phase delay in each loop circumferentially equals 45°, and
• d) a power splitter and a switching circuit for changing the transmit coil configuration to phased array reception wherein the power splitter switches each independent channel to be received to eight receivers as a phased array coil,
• whereby the need to decouple the transmit coil from the receiver coil is eliminated and the signal to noise ratio benefit is preserved.