Parallel transmit spatial spectral pulse design with specific absorption rate control: demonstration for robust water excitation at 7 Tesla

There has been an increasing interest in designing parallel transmit spatial spectral (pTx SPSP) RF pulses for reducing transmit B1 inhomogeneity while achieving water selective excitation. In this study, we propose a new pTx SPSP pulse design method with explicit SAR control with nearly complete fat suppression. Our results based on human calibration data acquired at 7T suggest that our method is equally applicable to both kT-point and SPINS pulse design, outperforming an existing method based on combining pTx with binomial pulse design approach. We believe our method will have a utility for high-resolution, whole-brain functional MRI at ultrahigh field.