The micro saddle coil with switchable sensitivity for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This paper reports a micro saddle coil with switchable sensitivity for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The coil comprises a polydimethyilsiloxane (PDMS) tube and a flexible substrate with a coil pattern. The coil deforms from a saddle-shaped mode to a planar-shaped mode. In MR images acquired in saddle-shaped mode, a large sensitive area existed around the coil. Although the area considerably reduced in the planar-shaped mode, clear MR images were obtained. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of the saddle-shaped and planar-shaped modes were 194.9 and 505.9, respectively, at 2.0 × 2.0 × 2.0 mm³ voxel size and 11.7 and 37.4, respectively, at 0.5 × 0.5 × 1.0 mm³. Thus, the micro saddle coil enabled highly sensitive and large-area imaging.