Size-Adaptive Occipital 18-Channel Receive-Only RF Coil for 3T MRI

The performance of a conformal occipital receive-only radio-frequency (RF) array is demonstrated at 3T. The ultimate aim of this larger coil is to improve whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) regardless of a person's head size and shape. The occipital array contains 18-channels built on a 3D-printed 3-mm thick thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) plate, which acts as a flexible substrate. To show the performance improvements of our design a comparative study was performed where three differently shaped phantoms were used when imaging by our occipital array then by a standard rigid 64-channel head product coil (posterior 40-channel section only). Signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and noise correlation performance were evaluated. Compared to the product coil, the flexible occipital array improved mean SNR by 2.8×. Noise correlation was comparable to the product coil. These results lead us to conclude that our design represents a viable approach to improve SNR for differently shaped heads and supports the feasibility of a larger 128-channel size-adaptable whole-head array currently in development.