A layered receiver and shim coil integration on a thin film

Motivation: Integrated RF and shim coils can improve signal detection and reduce field inhomogeneity. However, this integration requires bulky inductors to complete the shim current path shared with the RF coil inductance. Goal(s): Propose a new compact design of RF-shim coil integration. Approach: RF and shim coils were constructed over different layers of a thin film. Results were tested on a bench and inside a 3T MRI. Results: The layered integration of RF-shim coil offers good MRI signal sensitivity and field shimming (up to 0.5 A). The distributed capacitance permitted flexible coil geometry with stable frequency tuning (0.4 MHz frequency shift). Impact: A design of an integrated RF-shim coil over a thin film was presented to allow flexible and compact MRI signal detection with field inhomogeneity compensation. This device is expected to improve imaging with susceptibility artifacts with better sensitivity.