Design of a Volumetric Cylindrical Coil-Tuned at 298 MHz for 7 T Imaging.

The concept of a 2D cylindrical High Pass Ladder (2D c-HPL) is used in the development of this ultra-high radio frequency (UHRF) volumetric head coil for 7 T tuned at the Larmor frequency of 298 MHz. The architecture of the 2D c-HPL helps to overcome the challenges associated with non-uniform magnetic field distribution. The prototype consists of an individual resonating array of inductance-capacitance (LC) elements and each component is tuned to the precise f(o) frequency. The tuning of the (i) inductance, (ii) capacitance, (iii) mesh size, and (iv) coupling coefficient play critical roles to attain the desired Larmor frequency. For this proof-of-concept, the prototype of a volumetric head coil consists of a cylindrical array size of 4 x 6, with individual LC components of inductance magnitude, 98 nH and four fixed value capacitors and one tunable capacitor that allowed to achieve the desired precession frequency, f(r) = 298 MHz. The model was tested for three different f(o) values of 269, 275, and 286 MHz. The mutual coupling and the eigenfrequencies were compared through bench testing and dispersion equation. The experimental data were in good agreement (<5%) with the theoretical eigenfrequencies from the dispersion relation. The theoretical eigenfrequencies and the experimental eigenfrequencies are in good agreement for eigenmodes (1,2), (1,3), (2,2), (2,3), and (4,3).