A novel RF resonator for human-body MRI at 3 T

A square-slot-loaded (SSL) radio-frequency (RF) resonator using a microstrip transmission line (MTL) is designed for human-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3 T MRI. The SSL RF resonator shows improved RF magnetic fields resulting in more homogenous fields near the center of the phantom than traditional RF resonators using MTL. A multichannel body coil using the SSL RF resonators is also simulated and provides improved parallel excitation performance. In addition, RF shimming for homogenization can be effectively controlled by adjusting the inputs to the eight resonators. Numerical results are obtained by using a spherical phantom and a realistic human-body model at 3 T to calculate the B (1) (+) fields.