Period (from – till): 4 February 2019 - 19 April 2019
Course coordinator:
Renée Allebrandi, MA (course registration)
Course description:
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COURSE IS TAUGHT IN EINDHOVEN
The course will cover all aspects of RF in MRI. The course can be divided in four parts:
To generate RF fields with a RF coil or antenna, the coil or antenna needs to be driven with high power (~kw) RF signals. In the receive phase of the MRI sequence, the spins in the tissue will emit signals that will be detected by the RF coil. The coil will transform these signals into electrical RF signals and sent them to the ADC. The course will give an in-depth treatment of the generation and transportation of these signals. For this purpose, the following concepts will be covered: impedance calculations, RF amplifier classes, transmission lines, Smith Chart, scatter matrices, transmit-receive switches. (2 lectures)
The second part focuses at the coil or antenna. The most-often used types will be covered (loop coil, birdcage coil, dipole antenna and arrays). (1 lecture)
The third part will focus at the fields that are generated by the coil or antenna. The B1 field consists of B1+ en B1-, one only useful for the transmit phase, the other only useful for the receive phase of the MRI sequence. In addition, every coil or antenna also generates (or is sensitive for) electrical fields. These are responsible for energy deposition (SAR) and, in receive, noise. (2 lectures)
The third and last part will cover how relevant metrics of MRI performance can be calculated from (for example simulated) field distributions of RF antenna arrays, such as SNR, noise correlation, optimal reconstructions and g-factor distributions. (2 lectures)
Literature/study material used:
Lecture slides and exercises
Registration:
Please register at TU/e, course code 8DM30, at least 4 weeks before start of the course. Osiris registration will be done retroactively when results from the TU/e are received.
Mandatory:
No.
Optional for students in other GSLS Master’s programme:
No.