RF power design optimization in MRI system

Abstract

Magnetic resonance image quality and patient safety have been the focus of engineering and research ever since the invention of equipment in the early 1970s. In high field (or ultrahigh field) MRI systems, the emerging techniques induced by B1 field challenges have promoted various potential solutions. This paper describes the relationship between RF power and B1+ field performance, and the overall requirements considered in RF subsystem design. The design of the RF in the MR system is systematically summarized, including the entire transmission chain, sequence algorithm and RF pulse design, and the probabilities for improvement and optimization in the system design are indicated. At the same time, the radio frequency related issues of the human whole-body 7 T MR and animal MR systems are discussed, especially the promising future showed by the technologies such as radio frequency parallel transmission technology in the ultrahigh field.

Keywords

• MRI
• Optimization
• RF power
• Transmit chain
• RF pulse