A NOVEL TYPE OF SURFACE GRADIENT COIL

A new surface gradient coil (SGC) consisting of three orthogonal channels and a planar form is described. This coil has been developed for high-resolution imaging which generally requires strong gradient fields. The SGC we have developed can produce strong gradient fields with good linearity within a limited imaging region. To increase the signal-to-noise ratio, we have developed and experimentally examined an integrated surface RF coil-SGC set. In this paper, the geometrical structures and characteristics of the proposed SGC are discussed, and some experimental results obtained by use of the coil set are presented. High-resolution images (50 to 100 μm) of a water-filled phantom and a volunteer's knee obtained by using the new integrated surface RF coil-SGC set and the KRIS 2.0 T whole-body MRI system are studied and the results are presented. © 1991.