Neal Hollingsworth1,
Katherine Moody2, Jon-Fredrik Nielsen3, Douglas C. Noll3,
William A. Grissom4, Steven Wright1
1Electrical
Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States; 2Biomedical
Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States; 3Biomedical
Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; 4Biomedical
Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
Parallel transmit allows for acceleration of spatially selective RF pulses using multiple, independently modulated channels. We have developed an improved, stand alone, multichannel vector modulation system to support work with multi-dimensional RF transmit pulses. The modulators are integrated with an existing MRI system by connecting the RF input to the power amplifier and a digital trigger to them. Scaling to high channel counts is straight forward due to a modular design. Further, they can be used with systems at virtually all field strengths by replacing a simple filter located on a daughter board.