Petal resonator surface coil with a circular envelope for high field magnetic resonance imaging

A modified version of the petal resonator surface (PERES) coil is proposed in which the petal coils are located inside a circular-shaped coil as opposed to the previous PERES version which did not have a circular envelope. An 8-petal coil was simulated using a finite element method and the quasi-static approach to numerically investigate its electromagnetic characteristics. Numerical simulations showed that the field uniformity is not greatly affected by the use of circular-shaped coil inside in the circular envelope. A coil prototype was developed using the same coil configuration as above and tested on a commercial 3 T imager and a General Electric phantom. Phantom images also demonstrated that the mutual inductance between petals does not alter the coil performance. Standard pulse sequences were used to acquire phantom images with the petal resonator surface coil. It was shown that this prototype resonator coil is fully compatible with clinical high field MR imagers and clinical pulse sequences.