A theoretical study for the inverse design of an ellipsoidal phased-array breast coil

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used in human breast cancer detection, and the advancement of the radio-frequency (RF) phased-array technology promises to further improve the diagnostic image quality. In this paper, an inverse design method is presented for the theoretical design of an ellipsoidal RF phased array coil for human breast MRI. The target field technique was used to analytically express the relationship between the current density and the magnetic field within a predefined region; the streamline function technique was subsequently utilized to find the coil winding patterns. Based on a spherical coordinate system, the method is extended from the conventional cylindrical shape to the more tailored ellipsoidal geometry, a linearly polarization field used as an example. The theoretical analysis and the preliminary results presented demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed method.