Adaptive integrated parallel reception, excitation, and shimming (iPRES‐A) with microelectromechanical systems switches

摘要

Purpose Integrated parallel reception, excitation, and shimming coil arrays with N shim loops per radio‐frequency (RF) coil element (iPRES( N )) allow an RF current and N direct currents (DC) to flow in each coil element, enabling simultaneous reception/excitation and shimming of highly localized B 0 inhomogeneities. The purpose of this work was to reduce the cost and complexity of this design by reducing the number of DC power supplies required by a factor N , while maintaining a high RF and shimming performance. Methods In the proposed design, termed adaptive iPRES( N ) (iPRES( N )‐A), each coil element only requires one DC power supply, but uses microelectromechanical systems switches to adaptively distribute the DC current into the appropriate shim loops to generate the desired magnetic field for B 0 shimming. Proof‐of‐concept phantom experiments with an iPRES(2)‐A coil and simulations in the human abdomen with an 8‐channel iPRES(4)‐A body coil array were performed to demonstrate the advantages of this innovative design. Results The iPRES(2)‐A coil showed no loss in signal‐to‐noise ratio and provided a much more effective correction of highly localized B 0 inhomogeneities and geometric distortions than an equivalent iPRES(1) coil (88.2% vs. 32.2% lower B 0 root‐mean‐square error). The iPRES(4)‐A coil array showed a comparable shimming performance as that of an equivalent iPRES(4) coil array (52.6% vs. 54.2% lower B 0 root‐mean‐square error), while only requiring 8 instead of 32 power supplies. Conclusion The iPRES( N )‐A design retains the ability of the iPRES( N ) design to shim highly localized B 0 inhomogeneities, while drastically reducing its cost and complexity. Magn Reson Med 80:371–379, 2018. ? 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.