https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5082245
Abstract
We present a volume radio frequency coil for Magnetic Resonance Imaging that provides access to the region of interest. While the conventional birdcage coil is composed of a periodic array of similar unit cells making a cylindrical structure, the proposed coil, called “opencage,” is made of an aperiodic array of metamaterial based unit cells presenting different geometries and characteristics. We develop here a dedicated approach based on Bloch impedance matching and phase balance for the design of the opencage coil. We perform full-wave numerical simulations to validate this concept. An experimental demonstration of the opencage coil for small animal imaging at 7 Tesla is presented. The results of the in–vitro, in–vivo imaging and B+1
