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

With this work, we demonstrate that a receiveonly radio-frequency (RF) coil array can be segmented into smaller sub-arrays mounted on flexible plates, with the aim to improve whole brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for varying head sizes. In our approach, a sub-array of 18 elements was implemented on a flexible 3D-printed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) substrate, shaped to cover the occipital region of the average human head. Tests were conducted in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner by comparing our array to a standard rigid Siemens 64-channel head coil (using 40-channel posterior section only). To demonstrate the advantages of our flexible design, both coils imaged three differently shaped phantoms. Comparing the SNR performance of the flexible 18-channel occipital array to the product coil, we observe a maximum and mean signal-to-noise (SNR) improvement of 30.6-and 3.7-fold, respectively, for the best-case scenario. We conclude that this approach provides for the possibility to maximize SNR in cortical regions when imaging in a 3T MRI environment.