Magnetic resonance coil with overlapping coil elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9513351-B2
Application number	US-201213618635-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2012
Priority date	Sep 15, 2011
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A magnetic resonance coil for transmitting and/or receiving magnetic resonance signals is provided. The magnetic resonance coil includes at least two overlapping coil elements. Coil conductors of the at least two overlapping coil elements intersect in intersection regions and are arranged on a support. Mutually overlapping coil elements of the at least two overlapping coil elements are arranged on different sides of the support. The support is formed from at least three layers of a support material. A cavity that is filled with air or a filler material, the dielectric constant of the filler material being lower than the dielectric constant of the support material, is provided in the intersection regions in a middle layer of the at least three layers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A magnetic resonance coil for transmitting, receiving, or transmitting and receiving magnetic resonance signals, the magnetic resonance coil comprising:
a support comprising at least three layers of support material and a cavity arranged within the support and enclosed by the at least three layers; and
at least two overlapping coil elements, each coil element comprising a coil conductor, wherein coil conductors of the at least two overlapping coil elements intersect in intersection regions and are arranged on the support,
wherein mutually overlapping coil elements of the at least two overlapping coil elements are arranged on different sides of the support,
wherein the cavity is filled with air or a filler material, a dielectric constant of the filler material being lower than a dielectric constant of the support material, and
wherein the cavity is provided in the intersection regions in a middle layer of the at least three layers.

2. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein a loss factor of the filler material is lower than a loss factor of the support material.

3. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein the dielectric constant of the filler material is less than 2, a loss factor of the filler material is less than 0.001, or the dielectric constant of the filler material is less than 2and the loss factor of the filler material is less than 0.001.

4. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein the support material is a FR 4 material, and the filler material is a foam material, polytetrafluoroethylene, or a foam material and polytetrafluoroethylene.

5. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 4 , wherein the foam material is a polyethylene foam.

6. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein the at least three layers have a thickness of 0.05 to 1 mm.

7. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 6 , wherein the at least three layers have a thickness of 0.1 to 0.3 mm.

8. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein each layer of the at least three layers has a same layer thickness.

9. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein a layer of the at least three layers having the cavity has a greater thickness than layers of the at least three layers having no cavities.

10. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein the at least three layers comprise five layers,
wherein cavities are located in a second layer and a fourth layer of the five layers.

11. The magnetic resonance coil of claim 1 , wherein the magnetic resonance coil is a local coil.

12. A magnetic resonance device comprising:
a magnetic resonance coil for transmitting, receiving, or transmitting and receiving magnetic resonance signals, the magnetic resonance coil comprising:
a support comprising at least three layers of support material and a cavity arranged within the support and enclosed by the at least three layers; and
at least two overlapping coil elements, each coil element comprising a coil conductor, wherein coil conductors of the at least two overlapping coil elements intersect in intersection regions and are arranged on the support,
wherein mutually overlapping coil elements of the at least two overlapping coil elements are arranged on different sides of the support,
wherein the cavity is filled with air or a filler material, a dielectric constant of the filler material being lower than a dielectric constant of the support material, and
wherein the cavity is provided in the intersection regions in a middle layer of the at least three layers.

Assignees

• Biber Stephan
• Driemel Daniel
• Greim Helmut
• Wolf Steffen
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Biber Stephan
• Driemel Daniel
• Greim Helmut
• Wolf Steffen

Classifications

• G01R33/3642 Primary

  Mutual coupling or decoupling of multiple coils, e.g. decoupling of a receive coil from a transmission coil, or intentional coupling of RF coils, e.g. for RF magnetic field amplification · CPC title

• G01R33/3415 Primary

  comprising arrays of sub-coils {, i.e. phased-array coils with flexible receiver channels} · CPC title

• G01R33/34007

  Manufacture of RF coils, e.g. using printed circuit board technology; additional hardware for providing mechanical support to the RF coil assembly or to part thereof, e.g. a support for moving the coil assembly relative to the remainder of the MR system · CPC title

• G01R33/34 Primary

  Constructional details, e.g. resonators {, specially adapted to MR} · CPC title

• A61B5/055

  involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging · CPC title