Method and apparatus for decoupling quadrature phased array coils
AssigneeGE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC
InventorsEddy B. Boskamp, Ceylan Celil Guclu, Ricardo Becerra
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for combining the respective readout signals for a loop and butterfly coil pair of a quadrature phased array used for magnetic resonance imaging. The technique used to combine the signals introduces a 180 degree phase shift, or multiple thereof, to the loop coil signal, thereby allowing the loop coil signal to be decoupled from other loop coil signals by a low input impedance preamplifier in series with the signal.
Claims21
A system for decoupling receive coil signals in a magnetic resonance imaging system, the system comprising:
- a magnetic resonance scanner comprising:
- a primary coil;
- one or more gradient coils;
- a quadrature phased array receive coil assembly comprising one or more receive coil elements wherein each element comprises:
- a quadrature coil pair;
- a combiner circuit connected to the quadrature coil pair such that the combiner circuit receives a first signal from a first member of the quadrature pair and a second signal from a second member of the quadrature pair wherein the combiner phase shifts the first signal by 90 degrees and the second signal by 180 degrees and combines the first signal and the second signal to produce a combined signal;
- a preamplifier connected to the combiner circuit which processes the combined signal such that a component of the combined signal attributable to the second signal is decoupled from one or more other signals produced by the second members of other receive coil elements;
- a control and acquisition circuit operatively connected to the magnetic resonance scanner;
- one or more system controller circuits operatively connected to the control and acquisition circuit;
- and
- an operator interface station operatively connected to the one or more system control circuits.
A system for decoupling receive coil signals in a phased array coil assembly, the system comprising:
- a phased array coil assembly comprising one or more receive coil elements wherein each element comprises a butterfly coil and a loop coil;
- a combiner connected to each element such that the combiner receives a butterfly coil signal and a loop coil signal and generates an output signal comprising a butterfly coil component shifted 90 degrees and a loop coil component shifted 180 degrees;
- and
- a preamplifier connected to the combiner such that the preamplifier receives the output signal and decouples the loop coil component from one or more other loop coil components generated by other receive coil elements.
A system for decoupling receive coil signals in a phased array coil assembly, the system comprising:
- means for transmitting a butterfly coil signal and a loop coil signal from the phased array coil assembly to a combiner;
- means for combining the butterfly coil signal and the loop coil signal to produce an output signal in which the butterfly coil signal is phase shifted 90 degrees and the loop coil signal is phase shifted 180 degrees;
- means for processing the output signal such that a component of the output signal attributable to the loop coil signal is decoupled from one or more other loop coil signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.