Wireless, Customizable Coaxially-shielded Coils for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract: Anatomy-specific RF receive coil arrays routinely adopted in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for signal acquisition, are commonly burdened by their bulky, fixed, and rigid configurations, which may impose patient discomfort, bothersome positioning, and suboptimal sensitivity in certain situations. Herein, leveraging coaxial cables' inherent flexibility and electric field confining property, for the first time, we present wireless, ultra-lightweight, coaxially-shielded MRI coils achieving a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) comparable to or surpassing that of commercially available cutting-edge receive coil arrays with the potential for improved patient comfort, ease of implementation, and significantly reduced costs. The proposed coils demonstrate versatility by functioning both independently in form-fitting configurations, closely adapting to relatively small anatomical sites, and collectively by inductively coupling together as metamaterials, allowing for extension of the field-of-view of their coverage to encompass larger anatomical regions without compromising coil sensitivity. The wireless, coaxially-shielded MRI coils reported herein pave the way toward next generation MRI coils.