Concept for gradient-free MRI on twin natural slices

The design of an MRI for use in space requires that the hardware be kept to an absolute minimum in terms of mass, complexity, and power. In addition, NASA requirements are that the external stray field needs to be less than 3.2 Gauss, 7 cm from the MRI enclosure.

RF encoding designs with Halbach magnets offer the best chance of meeting those requirements. Spatially non-uniform magnetic fields with foliations of isomagnetic surfaces, or natural slices, may be used to provide slice selection, and to reduce further the hardware complexity, for TRansmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or potentially for other radio frequency (RF) encoding methods. The design of such non-uniform magnetic fields in a Halbach configuration with built-in axial gradients leads to pairs of isomagnetic surfaces centered on either side of a central maximum field strength slice. If TRASE images from slices other than the central isomagnetic surface are desired, then the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) signals originating from the twin natural slices must be separated during image reconstruction. Here, a design for simultaneously imaging on twin slices in such an inhomogeneous magnetic field using multiple receiver coils with spatially varying RF profiles is described mathematically and numerical simulation examples are given.

To achieve RF encoding on the natural slices, at least three TRASE transmit coils are required. Here a solution with twisted solenoid coils is given. To achieve the twin slice separation at least two receive coils are required. Here a solution with two solenoids is given.

The MRI design presented here uses a combination of RF encoding (TRASE), a spatial encoding magnetic field (SEM, pairs of natural slices) and receive coil spatial profiles to encode enough information into the NMR signal for image slice reconstruction. The design presented here enables using Halbach magnets with a built-in axial gradient to be used for MRI.

The result is a new gradient-free TRASE MRI design capable of imaging pairs of electronically selectable axial slices.