Motivation: At 3T, receive arrays often consist of multiple coils that need to be overlapped to reach decoupling, leaving little freedom for the arrangement of the coils. Goal(s): To develop self-decoupled coils, inspired by toroid designs, for densely packed receive arrays. Approach: Electromagnetic simulations were used to determine the configurations at which the toroidal coils are decoupled, and to evaluate B1- efficiency. Prototypes were realized to assess coupling properties experimentally. Results: Toroid coils with diameters of 4 and 8cm were realized. These coils exhibit decreased B1- efficiency but, unlike conventional elements, stayed decoupled when placed next to each other. Impact: Self-decoupled toroidal RF-coils offer a solution for creating densely-packed receive arrays at 3T, eliminating the need for traditional decoupling techniques. This design enables flexible coil arrangements and simplifies the construction of densely-packed arrays, potentially enhancing image quality and array scalability.
Budé et al. (Tue,) studied this question.