Rainer Schneider1,
2, Bastien Gurin3, Michael Hamm1, Jens Haueisen2,
Elfar Adalsteinsson4, 5, Lawrence L. Wald, 56,
Josef Pfeuffer1
1Siemens
Healthcare, MR Application Development, Erlangen, Germany; 2Institute
of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, Ilmenau University of Technology,
Ilmenau, Germany; 3Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; 4Dept
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; 5Harvard-MIT Division of
Health Sciences Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; 6Martinos
Center for Biomedical Imaging, Dept. of Radiology, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
The increased number of TX channels and Z-stacked pTX array geometry has been shown beneficial for better B1-shimming performance. No studies are known so far analyzing the different coil configurations for spatially-selective RF pulses. We simulate transverse and sagittal SSP pulses for two single-row arrays and a Z-stacked 3T body multi-channel TX array. Simulation results are analyzed with respect to TX acceleration factors and RF hardware efficiency. The Z-stacked coil setup shows significant gains in hardware efficiency and excitation performance along the sagittal direction, but also benefits along transverse direction. The beneficial effects are more prominent at higher acceleration factors.