Quarter wave balun for magnetic resonance imaging systems
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsVictor Taracila, Fraser Robb, Aleksey Zemskov, Vijayanand Alagappan
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Abstract
A balun assembly includes a body portion having an opening extending therethrough, the opening sized to receive at least one radio-frequency (RF) cable therethrough, the RF cable transmitting a signal therethrough a signal having a wavelength, and a balun disposed within the body portion, the balun being folded to form a plurality of layers, the combined length of the layers being approximately equal to a quarter wavelength of the signal transmitted through the RF cable. A method of fabricating a balun assembly and an MRI system including a balun are also provided.
Claims20
A balun assembly comprising:
- a casing having an opening extending therethrough, the opening sized to receive at least one radio-frequency (RF) cable therethrough, the RF cable transmitting therethrough a signal having a wavelength;
- and
- a balun disposed within the casing and positioned to circumscribe the RF cable extending through the opening, the balun being folded to form a plurality of layers, the combined length of the layers being approximately equal to a quarter wavelength of the signal transmitted through the RF cable.
A method of providing a balun for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system including at least one radio-frequency (RF) cable operating at a predetermined wavelength, said method comprising:
- determining a length of a length of the balun based on the wavelength of a signal transmitted through the RF cable;
- and
- folding the balun into a plurality of layers such that an overall length of the balun is less than a quarter wavelength of a signal transmitted through the RF cable, the length of each layer being determined based on the quantity of layers.
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system comprising:
- a radio frequency (RF) transmit coil;
- a transmit-receive (T-R) switch;
- an RF cable coupled between the RF transmit coil and the T-R switch;
- and
- a balun assembly circumscribing the RF cable, the balun including
- a casing having an opening extending therethrough, the opening sized to receive the RF, the RF cable transmitting therethrough a signal having a wavelength;
- and
- a balun disposed within the casing, the balun being folded to form a plurality of layers, the combined length of the layers being approximately equal to a quarter wavelength of the signal transmitted through the RF cable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.