Comprehensive analysis of transmit performance for an 8-element loop MRI RF coil at 300 MHz

We investigated transmit performance of an 8-channel TX/RX multi-channel loop-based RF coil, with and without decoupling sub-circuits, excited by a single power amplifier followed by a power splitter and phase shifter. We compared TX simulation results for two different planar loop shapes, with a range of different aspect ratios. Transmit performance and transmit efficiency for brain excitation vary little for coils of length between 85mm and 150 mm. The simulation setup allows investigation of any sophisticated decoupling network on the basis of a single 3-D simulation. The frequency-domain solver was found to be a vital tool for multi-channel RF coil investigation, because simulation of a 96 port project using time-domain tools is not feasible.