Various methods and systems are provided for a flexible, lightweight, and lowcost radio frequency (RF) coil of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. In one example, a RF coil assembly for an MRI system includes a distributed capacitance loop portion comprising at least three distributed capacitance conductor wires encapsulated and separated by a dielectric material, a coupling electronics portion including a preamplifier, and a coil-interfacing cable extending between the coupling electronics portion and an interfacing connector of the RF coil assembly.

An apparatus and method for receiving a magnetic resonance (MR) signal for imaging a patient. The MR signal includes a MR frequency. A radio frequency (RF) coil has first and second end portions. An impedance converter is in electrical communication with the RF coil. A preamplifier in electrical communication with the impedance converter, the preamplifier having a gain. At least one resonant circuit electrically connected to at least one end portion of the RF coil.

In a method for generating a measurement protocol for medical imaging of an object under examination, measurement parameters of the measurement protocol are divided into a protocol structure with a base class and classes supplementing the base class. The base class includes only hardware-independent measurement parameters and the supplementary classes includes only hardware-specific measurement parameters. A method for transferring a measurement protocol, a measurement protocol generation computer, a measurement protocol conversion apparatus, and a medical imaging system make use of such a measurement protocol.

The present invention relates to an RF transmit system and method, MRI system and a pre-scan method and medium thereof. The RF transmit system comprises: an RF output unit, for generating and outputting an RF pulse signal; an RF amplifier, for amplifying the RF pulse signal; and a signal processing unit, for communicating the amplified RF pulse signal to an RF transmit coil of the MRI system and outputting a feedback signal to the RF output unit, wherein the RF output unit generates a linearity compensation control signal based on the feedback signal and a predetermined feedback signal-linearity compensation value-relationship, so as to carry out linearity compensation for the RF pulse signal outputted by the RF output unit. The RF transmit method corresponds to the above noted system and the MRI system comprises the above noted RF transmit system. The pre-scan method comprises the RF transmit method. Instructions recorded by the medium may execute the above noted RF transmit method and pre-scan method.

According to some aspects, a laminate panel is provided. The laminate panel comprises at least one laminate layer including at least one non-conductive layer and at least one conductive layer patterned to form at least a portion of a B.sub.0 coil configured to contribute to a B.sub.0 field suitable for use in low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes an amplifier, a capacitor bank, and processing circuitry. The amplifier supplies, based on an imaging sequence, an RF pulse to an RF coil which generates a radio frequency magnetic field. The capacitor bank supplies an electric power to the amplifier. The processing circuitry judges whether an imaging by the imaging sequence is able to be executed, based on a condition of the RF pulse in the imaging sequence and an output efficiency of the amplifier.

A radio frequency (RF) device for receiving or exciting a magnetic resonance (MR) signal includes an MR coil (22, 32) tuned to an MR frequency band, a digital signal processing chain (40, 44, 58, 70) at least partly tuned to operate at baseband, an analog signal processing chain (48, 50, 54, 60) operatively connected with the MR coil and at least partly tuned to operate at the MR frequency band, and an analog to digital (A/D) or digital-to-analog (D/A) converter (46, 56) connecting the digital signal processing chain and the analog signal processing chain. The analog signal processing chain includes an analog dispersive delay line (50, 60) tuned to impose a frequency-dependent signal delay (52, 62) that is monotonically increasing or monotonically decreasing over the MR frequency band. In more specific embodiments, the RF device may comprise an MR transmit chain (20), or an MR receive chain (30).

Provided in the present invention are a power control apparatus for a radio-frequency power amplifier and a radio-frequency transmission system for a magnetic resonance imaging system. The power control apparatus comprises: a power control module used to receive a control voltage so as to control an output power of the radio-frequency power amplifier; a voltage detection module used to detect an operating voltage provided to the radio-frequency power amplifier and to output a detected voltage; and a voltage adjustment module used to adjust, on the basis of the detected voltage, the control voltage received by the power control module so as to adjust the output power of the radio-frequency power amplifier.

An MRI scanner and a method for operation of the MRI scanner are provided. The MRI scanner has a first receiving antenna for receiving a magnetic resonance signal from a patient in a patient tunnel, a second receiving antenna for receiving a signal having the Larmor frequency of the magnetic resonance signal, and a receiver. The second receiving antenna is located outside of the patient tunnel or near an opening thereof. The receiver has a signal connection to the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna and is configured to suppress an interference signal by the second receiving antenna in the magnetic resonance signal received by the first receiving antenna.

The invention relates to the generation of RF pulses for MRI applications. According to the invention, a RF transmitter for a MRI system (1) is provided which comprises a RF amplifier (9) for generating RF pulses and for forwarding these RF pulses to a RF transmit coil (5) of the MRI system (1), a capacitor bank (10) coupled to the RF amplifier (9), for storing electric energy and for providing the RF amplifier (9) with a current for generating the RF pulses, a mains power supply (11) coupled to the capacitor bank (10), for generating a charging current for charging the capacitor bank (10) with electric energy, and a power supply control unit (12) coupled to the mains power supply (11), for controlling the generation of the charging current for the capacitor bank (10), wherein the power supply control unit (12) is adapted for receiving an indication signal indicating the actual and/or the upcoming current drawn from the capacitor bank (10) and for controlling the generation of the charging current for the capacitor bank (10) on the basis of the indication signal. In this way, the generation of RF pulses for MRI applications becomes more efficient making it possible to use smaller capacitor bank values at the same performance level.