Multimodal surface coils for small animal MR imaging at ultrahigh fields

Motivation: High performance RF coils are needed for better SNR so that higher resolution and spectral dispersion can be obtained in small animal MR imaging. Goal(s): To develop a surface coil with improved SNR over the conventional surface coil for small animal imaging at 7T. Approach: A small animal surface coil is designed based on multimodal surface coil technique. The coil is investigated and compared with conventional surface coil using full-wave electromagnetic simulations. Results: The multimodal surface coil shows superior B1 field efficiency and lower E field over standard coils, indicating a potential to gain SNR and resolution. Impact: The proposed multimodal surface coil can operate at high frequency and provides improved SNR over conventional surface coils at 7T, opening avenues for highly efficient coil design in small animal imaging, ultimately enabling the detection of previously indiscernible physiological details.