Analysis of coil element distribution and dimension for matrix gradient coils

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Coil Design
• Gradient Field Generation

Background:

• Matrix gradient coils are crucial for MRI spatial encoding.
• Optimizing coil element distribution and dimensions is key to enhancing performance.
• Existing methods lack comprehensive metrics for coil element analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the influence of coil element distributions and dimensions on matrix gradient coil performance.
• To present a novel method for improving matrix gradient coil performance.
• To introduce new metrics for assessing coil system performance.

Main Methods:

• Developed three typical models (five structures) of a double-layer biplanar matrix gradient coil.
• Proposed two metrics: the role of coil elements and mutual inductance between coil elements.
• Introduced an optimization approach based on analyzing coil element distributions and dimensions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that suitable coil element distributions enable target magnetic field generation.
• Quantified the varying impact of individual coil elements on magnetic field generation.
• Showed that increasing coil element dimensions within a range reduces mutual inductance and improves system performance.
• The novel double-layer biplanar coil achieved acceptable performance for diverse magnetic field generation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed metrics offer theoretical support for designing and evaluating matrix gradient coils.
• Analyzing the role of coil elements aids in reducing the number of elements and power amplifiers.
• Mutual inductance serves as a valuable reference for determining optimal coil element dimensions.