Evaluation of receive-only single coil and four-element phased array for rodent brain imaging at 11.7 T

To achieve high temporal and spatial resolutions in Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging, one of the keys is to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the signal receiving stage. We used ultra high-field at 11.7 Tesla and custom surface array engineered to fit the size and geometry of a mouse brain in order to increase the SNR and to aim for very high spatial resolution. The coil array was a receive-only coil. Each element of the array was relatively small to reduce the overall loading. The array is cylindrically curved and mounted right above the skull to achieve optimal SNR. Spatial resolution reaches less than 35 micrometers when a four minutes FISP acquisition protocol was applied.