Comprehensive study on coupled meandered microstrip line RF coil elements for 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This paper presents a study of a pair of coupled meandered microstrip line RF coil elements for use in 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Both the distance to a load (absorbing medium/phantom) above the coils as well as to the RF shield below the coils are seen to have strong influence on the radiation resistance, Q-factor, resonance frequency, EM-field distributions and mutual coupling of the coil array. Numerical simulations were performed and experimental measurement for a specific case has been accomplished for verification.